'^:}m FTS H I N G IT 104E^^ ABROAD RY r or Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/fishingathomeabrOOmaxwrich FISHING AT HOME & ABROAD Only 750 copies of "Fishing at Home and Abroad" have been printed. This copy is No. 695 Subscriber's Name t HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V, Frontispiece. FISHING AT HOME & ABROAD EDITED BY J THE RT. HON. SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D. SALMON-TROUT, ISJlb. BALLATHIE, JUNE. 1900. 1 The glad trout is roaming in every clear stream, And the grilse and the salmon now drink the May flood: Then, anglers, be up with the sun's early beam, , Let your flies be in trim and your tackle be good. Then leave for a while the dull smoke of the city; ! Sons of gain quit your desks and your ledgers lay by; Seek health in the fields while each bird sings its ditty And breathe the pure air underneath the broad sky. Newcastle Garland, 1836. < LONDON THE LONDON & COUNTIES PRESS ASSOCIATION L" 39 KING STREET • GOVENT GARDEN • W.C. MGMXIII DEDICATED BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION TO HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V. PREFACE IN adding another volume to the existing literature of angling, which is already more copious than that of any other field sport, we find justification in the fact that hereto- fore no attempt has been made on a similar scale to provide in a single work informa- tion about fishing in all parts of the world. It is an ambitious scheme, no doubt ; but, inasmuch as the Editor has succeeded in securing the co-operation of recognized adepts in the various branches of the craft, and as these have contributed to the several sections nothing that is not founded upon their actual experience, the information given may be relied on as thoroughly trustworthy. Anglers have multiplied so prodigiously during the past half century and facilities of travel have so vastly increased, that the waters of the British Isles can no longer accom- modate the crowd. We are encouraged, therefore, to believe that a useful purpose may be served in showing what excellent sport may still be had in other parts of the world, more or less remote. The fishery resources of North America, once reckoned inexhaustible, have at length been recognized as a most valuable asset, both by the legislatures of the United States and by the Canadian government, and measures have been taken to prevent their undue de- pletion. The quality of sport which may be enjoyed among the salmon, trout and char of that continent is indicated in the articles contributed by three experienced fishermen Mr Theodore Gordon, Mr E. T. D. Chambers and Mr Nigel Bourke. Mr R. B. Marston, Editor of the Fishing Gazette, has dealt succinctly with pike and other species usually classed as "coarse fish" in this country. In his papers it will be seen that, if the fish be rightly termed " coarse," success in capturing them can only be obtained by means the reverse of coarse. Mr H. S. Thomas, C.S.I., author of The Rod in India and Tank Angling in India, is a veteran in the craft, and has opened out what must appear to most English readers a spacious vista of enjoyment in the East. He has also enabled us to enrich his pages by reproducing the plates of Indian fishes, which he caused to be drawn from nature. Mr C. E. Lucas has furnished notes of trout fishing in New Zealand, a country which promises to eclipse every other in the quality of that branch of angling, if, indeed, it has not done so already. Lastly, but not least, Mr F. G. Aflalo, pioneer and skilled exponent of the finer methods of marine-angling, has revealed the extent of the sporting capabilities of the ocean in many quarters of the globe. No pains have been spared in preparing the illustrations. The late Mr Ernest Briggs, R.I., R.S.W., united artistic quality of a high order with a perfect acquaintance with angling M846458 technique. The illustrations he prepared for this Volume were the very last upon which he was employed. We deeply regret that his health, which had long been a cause of anxiety to his friends, broke down completely in the Spring of 1913, and his illness terminated fatally on the 4th of September, in his forty-eighth year. Before he died Mr Briggs had the great satisfaction of knowing that one of his characteristic river pictures was hung in the National Gallery of British Art, London ; it having been purchased by the Royal Academy of Art under the terms of the Chantry Bequest. This was his last exhibited picture. Mr P. D. Malloch has few rivals in scientific photography of fish. We owe sincere thanks, also, to Mr Alfred Gilbey and other gentlemen who have contributed prints and photographs for reproduction. VI The following is a list of those who have kindly associated themselves with this work before publication, and to whom the thanks of the publishers are due. H.H. Graod Duke AUxander of Rutiia H.I.H. Grand Duke Michael of Rusiia H.H. Maharajah of Bhavnafar H.H. Rajah of Chamba Duke of Riohroond and Gordon Duke of Portland Barl of Camwath Earl of Cranbrook Barl of Goiford Barl of HaUbury Earl of Harewood Earl of Kintore Earl of Limerick Barl of Plymouth Earl of Portarlington Earl of St Germans Earl of Seafield Earl of Sefton Earl of Suffolk Earl of Temple and Stowe Viscount Coke Capt. Viscount Dalrymple Viscount Hambleden Viscountess Peel The Lord Bishop of Bristol Lord Airedale Lord Clarendon Lord Crawshaw Lord Dunjlass Lord Gerard Lord Algernon Gordon-Lennox Lord Hastings Lord Francis Clinton Hope Lord Petre Lord Strathcona Hon. K. P. Bouverie Hon. D. Carleton Hon. Jeoffrey N. Dawnay Hon. C. Hay Major-Gen. the Hon. W. Hume Hon. John B. Lyon Hon. G. Hope Morley Hon. H. B. Portman Capt. Hon. H. C. Prittie Hon. L. M. St Clair, CLE. Capt. the Hon. A. Strutt Col. Sir Philip Chetwode, D.S.O. Sir Frederick Adair, Bart. Sir William P. Beale, Bart. Sir Francis D. Blake, Bart. Sir Foster Cunliffe, Bart. Sir H. Bargrave Deane, Bart. Sir William Hart Dyke, Bart. Sir John Bardley-Wilmot, Bart. Sir Ailwyn E. Fellowes, Bart. Sir Cecil Graham, Bart. Sir Edward H. W. Hulse, Bart. Sir William Jaffray, Bart. Sir John Jackson, LL.D.,C.V.O., M.P. Sir Edmund G. Loder, Bart. Sir William Mackenzie Sir Charles Mander, Bart. Sir John Maxwell, Bart. Sir Charles H. T. Metcalfe, Bart. Sir Cuthbert Quilter, Bart. Sir Frederick V. L. Robinson, Bart. Sir Archibald H. Sinclair, Bart. Sir Anthony Corapton Thornhill, Bart. Sir Peter Walker, Bart. Baron de Pallandt Erde Count G. Festetics Spencer Leigh Hughes, Esq., M.P. Percy Illingworth, Esq., M.P. H. Fitrherbert Wright, Esq., M.P. William J. Waugh, Esq., K.C. His Honour Judge Gwynne-James Admiral F. St J. Rich Lt. Gen. J. M. Babington Col. Archibald Douglas Dick, C.B. Col. P. Browne Giles, C.B. Col. J. M. Rogers Col. W. A. Scott Col. A. H. Vincent CoL Wm. Hall Walker Major R. G. T. Baker-Carr Major J. R. Eraser Major C. Ramsden Major Gerald F. Trotter Capt. J. A. Stewart Balmain Capt. R. B. Brassey Capt. Q. Dick Capt. Alex. T. Gordon Capt. W. Higson Capt. F. H. Hodge Capt. A. Hume Capt. A. Glen Kidston Capt. William Neilson Capt. Richard Elliott Palmer Capt. J. F. Parry, R.N. Capt. J. Harold J. Phillips Capt. Samuel Pulley Arthur C. Abrahams, Esq. V. C. W. Agnew, Esq. B. N. Akroyd, Esq. J. Balfour Allan, Esq. G. Hely-Hutchinson Almond, Esq., M.A., M.B. M. Alston, Esq. Carrol W. Ansdell, Esq. C. S. Ascherson, Esq. P. H. Ashworth, Esq. M. Athorpe, Esq. George H. Banks, Esq. Gilbert A. Bannatyne, Esq. Cbas. Begg, Esq. J. Bell-Irving, Esq. G. L. Bevan, Esq. J. L. Berir, Esq. W. B. Bingham, Esq. L. H. P. Birch, Esq. Edward Blount, Esq. Walter T. Boodle, Esq. John Milne Bramwell, Esq. C. C. Branch, Esq. Arthur F. M. Braun, Esq. D. von Braun, Esq. Alfred Brisco, Esq. Sydney C. Bristowe, Esq. F. Bryce, Esq. Godfrey R. Buckley, Esq. J. W. Budd, Esq. Ian Bullough, Esq. A. W. G. Campbell, Esq. Charles Ernest Cater, Esq. G. F. Chance, Esq. Ernest Chaplin, Esq. K. M. Clark, Esq. Lionel College, Esq. J. S. Collier, Esq. Walter J. Coltman, Esq., C.B. H. C. S. Combe, Esq. Henry F. Compton, Esq. Robert C. Hardy Corfe, Esq. A. Wynne Corrie, Esq. B. Valentine Corrie, Bcq. Chas. Costeker, Esq. Wm. H. Cox, Esq. P. A. S. Crawley, Esq. John Crisp, Esq. Arthur W. Crossley, Esq. Edward Curre, Esq. H. Czamikow, Esq. N. Dalrymple-Hamilton, Esq. R. Davidson, Esq. J. S. Davey, Esq. T. R. Davey, Esq. F. L. Davis, Esq. A. W. Dennis, Esq. J. Dewrance, Esq. F. D. Docker, Esq. Norman F. Druoe, Esq. Charles B. Dudley, Esq. Alick Duncan, Esq. Arnold Evans, Esq. J. Howell Evans, Esq., M.A., M.B. F. Eustace Faithfull, Esq. W. J. Fisher, Esq. vii David Forbes, Esq. Wilfrid S. Fox, Esq., M.A„ M.D. W. Temple Franks, Esq. Forbes Eraser, Esq. Conrad Fry, Esq. Chas. T. Garland, Esq. J. C. Gardner, Esq. Arthur N. Gilbey, Esq. A. J. Gillott, Esq. G. Gladwin-Errington, Esq. Basil A. Goad, Esq. S. H. Gollan, Esq. Frederick Leonard Govett, Esq. J. B. Gray, Esq. W. J. Gresson, Esq. Andrew Haes, Esq. Henry Sinclair Hall, Esq. R. Halsey, Esq. R. O. Hambro, Esq. E. A. Hanly, Esq. Leonard F. Harrison, Esq. John Hassall, Esq. Victor J. Hastings, Esq. A. Hawley, Esq. C. Spencer Hayward, Esq. Walter Heape, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. F. P. Heath, Esq. W. A. R. Heaven, Esq. Eric S. Hervey, Esq. A. P. Hill, Esq. C. Gathorne Hill, Esq. J. A. Hill, Esq. F. B. Hinchliff, Esq. H. Roughton Hogg, Esq. Henry C. Holder, Esq. Frederick M. Holman, F-sq. G. N. Horlick, Esq. Sam C. Hosegood, Esq. W. Lloyd Howard, Esq. J. Arthur Hutton, Esq. G. C. L. Insole, Esq. C. Bower Ismay, Esq. R. Jardine, Esq. H. W. Jefferson, Esq. H. G. Lawson Johnston, Esq. James J. Joicey, Esq. W. J. H. Jones, Esq. John C. Jukes, Esq. Gilbert E. B. Kennedy, Esq. R. M, Kindersley, Esq. Ernest Kingscote, Esq. J, de Knoop, Esq. A. Lampard, Esq. Joseph Latham, Esq. W. H. Laverton, Esq. David Lawson, Esq. C. Liddell, Esq. Arthur Lindley, Esq. Charles Watson Low, Esq. C. E. Lucas, Esq. Alick Mackenzie, Esq. Allan Mackenzie, Esq. W. D. Mackenzie, Esq. Thomas Mackie, Esq. William Mackinnon, Esq. Oswald Cecil Magniac, Esq. C. C. Macrae, Esq. P. R. Mann, Esq. G. J. Marjoribanks, Esq. G. King Martyn, Esq., M.D. J. Howorth Massey, Esq. Richard D. Matthey, Esq. G. A. Maxwell, Esq. W. N. McMillan, Esq. E. L. Mellin, Esq. J. C. Metcalfe, Esq. J. Metbven, Esq. A. H. Michell, Esq. James Millar, Esq. John H. Millns, Esq. F. J. O. Montagu, F.sq. H. Morrison, Esq. F. G. Naumann, Esq. James Neil, Esq., M.D. Alec Neilson, Esq. G. C. Neilson, Esq. J. Beaumont Neilson, Esq. Hugh Hope Nelson, Esq. William Nelson, Esq. A. Hume Nicholl, Esq. Wickham F. Noakes, Esq. John Paterson, Esq. Edward Paul, Esq. Joseph Frederick Peart, Esq., F.R.C.S. Hugh Peel, Esq. F. R. Pelly, Esq. E. F. Penn, Esq. G. Pigot-Moodie, Esq. Gavin William Ralston, Esq. Robert C. Rathbone, Esq. C. S. Rattigan, Esq. G. F. Rogers, Esq. C. N. Rolker, Esq. Charles John Roskell, Esq. Eraser Sandeman, Esq. Harold Schwind, Esq. H. S. Seldon, Esq. G. C. Sellar, Esq. S. Sellon, Esq. R. C. H. Sinclair, Esq. Wilfred Sheridan, Esq. G. Boyle Smith, Esq. Reginald Abel Smith, Esq. F. C. Stern, Esq. W. Steuart-Menzies, Esq. J. Stewart-Clark, Esq. Walter C. Swayne, Esq. R. E. Talbot, Esq. Edwin Tate, Esq. J. B. Taylor, Esq. Ralph H. Thomas, Esq. David Thomson, Esq. V. C. Vickers, Esq. W. Scott Waldie, Esq. A. Barclay Walker, Esq. Russell D. Walker, Esq. Harold R. Ward, Esq. B. J. Warwick, Esq. Guthrie Watson, Esq. Charles A. N. Wauton, Esq. C. W. S. Whitburn, Esq. M. R. L. White, Esq. G. A. Whitelaw, Esq. George Wilder, Esq. Chas. Romer Williams, Esq. C. P. Wills, Esq. Henry Herbert Wills, Esq. W. Melville Wills, Esq. John F. Woodburne, Esq. W. S. Worthington, Esq. J. M. Younger, Esq. VUl CONTENTS PRELIMINARY. The Ri«ht Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. Page 1 THE ATLANTIC SALMON. The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. 7 THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT. The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. 19 SALMON FLIES. The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. 38 SALMON FISHING. The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. 62 TYEE FISHING AT CAMPBELL RIVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA. Nigel Bourke 83 SEA TROUT FISHING. The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. 88 TROUT FISHING. The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. 102 TROUT FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND. C. E. Lucas 138 CHAR. The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. 144 THE GRAYLING. The Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart. 152 SALMON AND TROUT FISHING IN CANADA. E. T. D. Chambers 163 AMERICAN TROUT FISHING. Theodore Gordon 176 THE PIKE AND PIKE-FISHING. R. B. Marston 192 THE PERCH AND PERCH-FISHING. R. B. Marston 217 CARP AND CARP-FISHING. R. B. Marston 222 THE CRUCIAN CARP. R. B. Marston 230 THE CHUB AND CHUB-FISHING. R. B. Marston 231 THE BREAM. R. B. Marston 238 THE BARBEL. R. B. Marston 240 TENCH AND TENCH FISHING. R. B. Marston 244 THE ROACH AND RUDD. R. B. Marston 247 THE DACE. R. B. Marston 258 SMALL FRY. R. B. Marston 259 HYBRIDS. R. B. Marston 264 FISHING IN THE EAST. H. S. Thomas 265 SEA FISHING, GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF. F. G. Aflalo 285 THE TARPON. F. G. AOalo 303 THE TUNA, OR TUNNY. F. G. Aflalo 325 THE BASS. F. G. Aflalo 338 THE POLLACK, COALFISH AND SEA BREAM. F. G. Aflalo 356 THE GREY MULLET. F. G. Aflalo 366 THE MACKEREL. F. G. Aflalo 371 THE CONGER EEL. F. G. Aflalo 377 THE "COARSE FISH" OF THE SEA. F. G. Aflalo 382 SHARKS, DOGFISH AND SKATE. F. G. Aflalo 386 ON THE MAP, AT HOME. F. G. Aflalo 392 ON THE MAP, ABROAD. F. G. Aflalo 399 IX PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V PLATE I. V. VIII. IX. XVIII. XXXIX. XLI. COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS *A Salmon in June Salmon Fishing, A.D. 1830 Salmon Flies Salmon Flies *Sea Trout Fishing — River Indian Fish Indian Fish facing page 2 20 40 48 88 270 274 MONOCHROME PLATES PLATE X. ♦"Canny wi' him. Sir!" XII. *Stobhall, on The Tay XVn. *Resting XIX. *Sea Trout Fishing — Loch XXVI. *Wading in Loch Lydoch facing fage 62 66 82 92 122 PLATE XXI. XXIX. LV. LVIII. LX. PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES Captain Radcliife's Retriever landing a Trout Pike Fishing about 1830 Mr J. K. L. Ross and his Record Tuna A Talian On the Quay at Concarneau facing t>age 102 192 336 354 400 HALF-TONE PLATES PLATE IL Tay Salmon, 58 lb. m. Tay Grilse, 5 lb. IV. Lake Trout, 6 lb. Tay Salmon, 13 lb. VI. Scale of Salmon and Trout Hooks VII. Knots, Hooks, etc. XI. On Taymount Water XIII. Fishing Party on the Tay XIV. Harling: Benchill Water, Tay XV. The wrong way ot giving the Butt facing page 8 10 12 12 30 34 64 68 72 76 The illustrations in colour and monochrome have been reproduced by Messrs Ben Johnson & Sons, Limited, of York. Those marked * are from original drawings specially executed for this Work by the late ERNEST B. BRIGGS, R.I., R.S.W. XI HALF-TONE FLATES-continued PLATE XVL The right way of giving the Butt facing page 77 XX. Loch Leven Trout 98 XXIL Marking a Rising Fish 106 XXIIL Stalking a Fish 108 XXIV. Hooked 110 XXV. A Sample from Loch Leven 118 xxvn. River Tongariro, New Zealand 138 On the River Waiau 138 xxvin. Rainbow Trout from the River Tongariro 142 Anglers' Camp on the Waiau River 142 XXX. Perch 218 XXXL Bank Fishing on the Lea 100 years ago 220 xxxn. Carp ?2?. xxxin. Bream 238 XXXIV. Barbel 240 XXXV. Thames Punt Fishing 100 years ago 242 XXXVI. Tench 244 XXXVII. Gudgeon and Bleak 260 XXXVIII. The Mahseer (Barbus Tor) 266 XI., Seetul 272 XLIL The Baril (Barilius Bola) 280 XLIIL The Cockup or Nair Fish 282 The Marral 282 Polynemus 282 XLIV. Megalops 284 XLV. On the Yorkshire Coast 296 XLVI. On the Riviera 298 XLVII. Spaniards Fishing at Tangier 300 XLVIII. A Sailfish 322 XLIX. The First Jump 324 Nearing the End 324 L. Mr Henry's Reel Attachment 326 Mr Henry's Rod with Removable Rings 326 LI. Mr Henry's Turntable 328 Mr Henry's Shoulder-Strap 328 LII. Tunny Boats at Madeira 330 LIIL Yellowtail 332 LIV. A Large Black Sea-Bass 334 LVL Mr Henry's Two-Barbed Hook, baiting with Sand-Eel for Bass, ditto with small Prawns 340 LVII. The " Reis " on the Look out 352 LIX. Fishing for Merjan 364 xu PRELIMINARY By the RIGHT HON. SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART. MANY years ago a writer in one of the journals devoted to field sports launched a proposal in all seriousness for the institution of a Council of Sport which should be empowered to confer degrees and decorations upon per- sons who had proved their prowess in various branches of pursuit. Happily the scheme got no further than the proposal, for one can conceive nothing more detrimental to field sports than that they should acquire the character of a business or profession. As it is, except foxhunting and cricket, all the principal field sports and games have suffered from the pernicious infiuence of record-breaking. Racing and coursing are in their very nature competitive ; but there is no surer method of vulgarizing game-shooting and fishing, and robbing them of half their fascination, than making them the subject of competition. Some measure of emulation, indeed, must be allowed to give zest to the sport; but the love of excellence for its own sake ought never to degenerate into a mere effort to excel others, and I know of no more sorrowful travesty of the contemplative man's recreation than the members of an angling club competing for stakes and prizes. I forget the full list of achievements which the writer abovementioned prescribed as necessary to entitle one to claim a sportsman's degree and don the badge to be conferred by the Council of Sport; but I remember that any one aspiring to these distinctions was to present a certificate that, among other feats, he had shot a royal stag and landed a 20 lb. salmon. I suppose, therefore, that although most anglers are entered to the craft by the capture of some humbler quarry, a writer on angling should begin at the other end and assign the first place to Salmo salar. That, however, must not be assumed to imply that salmon fishing is the most difficult branch of the art of angling. Far from it. Much greater skill and more delicate manipulation are called for in expiscating a 2 lb. trout from the tranquil Itchen than in inducing a spring salmon of fifteen times that weight to take a three -inch fly in the darkling Tay or turbulent Spey. Luck is reduced to its minimum in chalk-stream fishing ; in salmon-fishing it is a most potent and ever-present factor. Let the novice once acquire the knack enabling him to project his lure to a moderate distance over the place B 1 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD where his gillie tells him salmon are in the habit of resting, and he runs every bit as fair a chance of hooking a fish as the most accomplished master of the game, though in handling a salmon after it is hooked an experienced fisher will score many points over the tyro. Every fisherman's memory must be stored with instances wherein luck — sheer luck — ^was the chief, if not the sole, agent. I will recall two such instances in both of which my friend, the late Mr F. Mason, was an actor. The scene of the first was laid on the Thurso. Most of those who are acquainted with that weird river will agree with me in considering the cream of it to consist in beat No. 7, the longest and at the same time the liveliest, in an otherwise somewhat sluggish course. Beginning at the top one likely fishing day in February, Mason, no mean performer, searched every stream and pool down to the Rock — the lowest on the beat — ^without feeling a touch. After eating his sandwich, he retraced his steps, fishing every possible place with faultless diligence, but with no ponderable result. By the time he reached the Sauce Pool again (the top cast on the beat) the shades of the long Caithness night were gathering. Like all the rest, the Sauce Pool was blank, and, being honestly tired. Mason laid his rod on the bank, leaving the line streaming in the current, and told his gillie to wind up. The gillie proceeded to obey, but found that the fly was fast, as he supposed, in a submerged rock. Mason had turned homeward, but was stopped by a shout — " Here a fish ! " A fifteen-pound springer, which had ignored Mason's fly when artistically presented to him, had quietly seized it as it dangled in the stream, and was safely landed to save a blank day. The other incident, in which the luck turned savagely against poor Mason, occurred in the opposite extremity of Scotland — ^the extreme south-west — ^where I was a joint tenant with others of a river whence all the nets had been removed. Mason having come to pay me a visit, every good sportsman will understand how supremely anxious I felt that he should have some sport. The month was April — ^the best of the whole year for the Cree, especially for its tributary the Minnick (which, by the way, is the larger river of the pair), the water was in prime order, and on the first day it fell to our turn to fish my favourite beat for spring salmon — ^namely, the lower portion of the Minnick. Take it all round I think that, except the middle portion of the Kvina river in southern Norway, this part of the Min- nick is the prettiest bit of fly casting I know. The water is very clear, without a stain of peat, but it makes up for what might be a disadvantage to the 2 < 0U o > where bis gillie t •'bit as fltibe' ; points Gv. r s^ent. X w ff d runs ^hfrmnn's. r-fmnrv '9 in both of ^v] G 5: O r > CO one t' It ^iia •r>nv{y >weet OB obey, oui louxiil thA\ :k. Mason had turiKu >i'r ^'^^ii * •' A laJteen-povx'^ )y presented (1, and was safely land* , Ma«< hv Mid- day. '?« other incident, la wbi Moson, occurred in th« opp sooCk-'wvst—- wher* ^ " " -^ '' thfi nets had h?<^ good L understand ho should have some nport. The month was April—the b lor the Cree, e- jb, luUaii .ve a blank ■Afirti rr us I felt that be amdiy. uy Itor )tMlviia&ag« to U*e PRELIMINARY angler by being very rough. Its course is tlirough a rugged moorland, a series of cascades separated by churning cauldrons, rapid streams and rocky pools of small extent. Every inch of fishing water can be covered without wading by a fifteen-foot greenheart, and the nature of the channel ensures lively sport when a fish is hooked. Well, I arranged that Mason should fish the water before me; but as we were to start from a bridge near the bottom of the beat, I set him down there with a gillie to show him where the fish lay, and went down alone myself to try a place below the bridge so as to give him a good start in fishing up. He had the cream of the water before him, to which I felt sure that so good a fisherman would do full justice. Wind, weather and sky were all that one could wish for ; but it had rained very heavily in the night, and I was haunted by apprehension of the river coming down in flood before long. I killed a nice fish of 11 lb. in the low pool, and then proceeded to follow Mason up the river, where he had a start of a full mile before me. It seemed that he must have fished the water very carefully, for I saw nothing until I overtook him near the top of the beat, and was surprised to find that he had not moved a fish. It was now high noon, the river was rising fast and I foresaw that it would be unfishable before Mason finished the beat. So leaving three excellent pools untouched for him, I passed him and went on to the topmost pool on the beat, where an ancient bridge, fondly called Roman by local antiquaries, spans the river, looking strangely as if it had lost its way in the brown moor, for there is no vestige of a road on either side of it. Under this bridge the river rushes through a narrow rocky gorge, expand- ing suddenly into a broad circular pool. The flood was now well under way, and the chance of moving a fish in the tumbling water was a faint one. I grudged the minutes spent in changing my fly to a larger one ; but it was worth the trouble, for at the second cast up came a nice little fish of 8 lb. and was fast. Be sure that I did not waste any time in getting him out; then, thinking myself an old fool for attempting any more under what seemed prohibitive conditions, I hurried round by the bridge to try the quieter water on the other side. Luck again ! I landed a third fish, 9 lb., after which all further fishing was quite out of the question. Now I had planned the beat most carefully for Mason's advantage, yet he never had a rise that day, and he certainly was not inferior to me in either skill or diligence. In respect of heavy fish luck plays a still more capricious part. It is the 3 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD dream of every young salmon fisher (and it remains the unrealized dream of many an old one) to kill a 30 lb. salmon ; and when that dream has been fulfilled he hankers after a forty -pounder. It is not a very rational desire, for these very heavy fish seldom offer such a spirited resistance as an eighteen- or twenty-pounder. It generally takes longer to get one of them ashore ; but the conflict is usually more stubborn than fierce. Nevertheless, there is something in the contrast between a thread of single gut and the massive proportions of a great salmon that causes the successful angler to feel that he has accomplished rather a fine feat in landing a monster. Yet he has nothing to thank but his luck. My old fishing book bears witness that I had been fishing more or less for thirty-eight years, during which I killed 563 salmon, before I landed a fish of 30 lb. Three times during that period I missed my opportunity. Two of these occasions were on the Tweed, when, having to go to Edinburgh for meetings, I invited a lady to occupy my beat. The first of these ladies gave me the impression of thinking she was doing me a favour by accepting it. She fished for exactly one hour and a quarter in the Haly Weil at Bemersyde, and returned home with a salmon of 35 lb. The other lady, wholly unskilled, fished the Willow Bush at Mer- toun for me and landed one of 32 lb. — an ugly red cock, it is true, but still a heavier fish than had ever fallen to my lot. The third occasion was in Norway, on the romantic Rauma, where I had the pleasure of gaffing a beautiful salmon of 33 lb. for a friend to whom I had lent my rod for an hour or so. Talking of the Rauma brings to mind another incident on that noble river — ^but when an old salmon fisher takes to yarning he is too apt to presume upon the good-nature of his company. Readers, however, have this advantage over listeners, that they can turn off the tap of narrative at pleasure; wherefore, should anybody not care to hear how the spell that had lain upon me for so many years was broken, and how I succeeded in landing a big fish at last, let him skip the rest of this chapter. We went to Norway in 1904 earlier than usual — earlier, as it turned out, than there was any need for — only to find the Rauma far lower than it should be at the beginning of June, for the weather was cold, the snow had not come away properly, and there were hardly any fish running. But the first time I fished the famous Foss of Aarnhoe I saw two very large fish rise at the very tail of the pool. Nothing else was moving in that great tumbling basin except this stately pair, just where the current, broad and smooth, sweeps towards the rapids below. 4 PRELIMINARY Now this cast has to be fished from a boat and is an exceedingly ticklish spot wherein to hook a salmon. If the fish can be persuaded to move up into the Foss pool, all may be well, for there is plenty of room there to tire him out : the angler may play him at pleasure and go ashore to land him. But the draw at the tail of the pool is so powerful that if a salmon turns his broadside to it he must go down into the rapid. Then the fight begins in earnest, with odds against the fisherman, for the boat has to be rowed smartly away from the salmon so as to set the angler ashore before he can follow his fish. By the time he reaches terra firma he is separated from the said fish by a side stream, beyond which a long spit of huge boulders projects into the main river. All this time the salmon has been descending the rough water and Piscator may think himself lucky if no more than one hundred yards of line have been taken from the reel. He has now to scramble at top speed to get on terms with his fish. In a high water the line may have been carried clear of an enormous rock that lies in mid- channel, after which it is fairly plain sailing for a couple of hundred yards down to Langhol, a fine open stream, where, if the fish is still on, it may be landed at leisure ; but in a low water it is three chances to one that the rock has fouled the line and the salmon has broken away. Now to return to my position on the Foss pool. In considerable trepida- tion I sent a small double -hooked Silver Grey over the lie of those two big fish. In a moment I felt a heavy pull, and was fast. At first the fish, to my great relief, moved slowly upwards, keeping very deep. It circled twice or thrice round the entire circumference of the pool, then turned with an evident intention of seeking the company of its fellow at the tail. No strain that I dared to put upon the single gut prevailed to stop him ; down, down — deep down — ^he forced his way, until he paused in the very point of danger, fiercely shaking his head. Then down again, and I knew that he must leave the pool. We rowed quickly ashore ; I scurried breathlessly over the rocks, the reel spinning wildly all the time. When I regained the river- side it seemed that all had gone well, for the line was stretching away among the tumbling waters in the direction of Langhol. I wound in as fast as possible ; presently the line began to point up stream and my hopes to sink. A moment of suspense — ^then the fatal truth became plain ; the line had hanked upon the sunken rock, and the salmon had departed with the little Silver Grey. From first to last I never caught a glimpse of him, but there could be no doubt that he was one of the two big fish I had seen rising. 5 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD By this time the sun was on the water, and the morning's fishing was over. Two days later I was again on Aarnhoe, which I fished without moving anything or seeing anything move, till the fly came over the exact place where yesterday I had met the fellow with whom I was so soon to part. Precisely the same thing happened; the fly was seized; the fish sailed slowly up into the pool ; but on this occasion it remained there, so that in less than a quarter of an hour Johann slipped the gaff into the broadside of a 33 lb. salmon. We were discoursing of sportsman's luck when I wandered off into re- miniscence. Luck counts for more in salmon-fishing than in any other sport, especially as success depends upon uncontrollable conditions of weather ; but luck is not everything. To enable the angler to take advantage of fortune when she smiles, he should be at some pains to become acquainted with the life -history, the habits and the moods of the creature upon which he depends for sport. THE ATLANTIC SALMON SALMO SALAR By the RIGHT HON. SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART. PROBABLY there is no animal of similar commercial importance of which the life history has been so difficult to elucidate as the salmon. Controversy has been waged about it without end, not always in a philosophic spirit, and it is only in recent years, since the scientific system of observation and marking instituted by Mr Walter Archer, as Inspector of Scottish Salmon Fisheries, has been carried forward by Mr Calderwood, Mr H. Johnston, Mr Malloch, Dr Noel Paton, etc., in the north, and by Mr Hutton and other careful investigators in England, that any considerable addition to knowledge has been attained. Much of the ground formerly occupied by a rank growth of random hypothesis and a priori argument has now been cleared; and although a great deal of uncertainty upon important points still awaits settlement, we have the satisfaction of feeling that research is being con- ducted on right lines and sound principles. The chief hindrance to the investigation of salmon problems consists in the fact that, although the salmon is a native of fresh water,* it passes most of its life in the sea, where it is very difficult to follow its movements. Nevertheless a great advance in this respect has been achieved as the result of marking migrating smolts in the Tay, a process most successfully con- ducted by Mr Calderwood and Mr Malloch in the spring of 1905 and fully described in Mr Malloch's work on the life-history of the salmon.j Previous to that undertaking, all that was known with certainty was that the process of spawning went on in the late autumn and winter, that after the ova had been deposited in the gravel of the river bed by the female and duly ferti- lized by the male, a period of from ten to seventeen weeks, according to temperature, elapsed before the tiny alevins made their escape from the eggs. The experience gained in fish -hatcheries established the fact that, after spending their first summer gregariously as fry, in the following 'Like most other points in the life-history of salmon this has been matter of controversy. Mr W. L. Calderwood, founding on the fact that the majority of Salmonidie are purely marine, and having regard to the ease with which the common trout (JS. fario) endures a sojourn in salt water, considers that the salmon should be classed as a marine species. On the other hand, seeing that this fish cannot perpetuate its species in the sea, salt water being fatal to the vitality of the ova, that it repairs regularly to rivers in order to spawn, and that the first two or even three years of its life are spent there, it is difficult to regard it otherwise than as a native of fresh water. ^Lift-History and Haiits of the Salmon, etc., by P. D. Malloch. London: A. & C. Black, 1910. 7 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD spring they appear as " parr," bearing a close resemblance in appearance and habits to common brook trout. At this stage they are exposed to many relentless persecutors, chief among which are pike, eels, mergansers, cormorants and other predaceous creatures. Trout-fishers, also, exact a heavy toll upon them, unless water bailiffs are ceaselessly vigilant; many do so in ignorance, believing these little fish to be undersized trout; but there are plenty of unscrupulous fellows who know well enough what they are doing, for salmon-parr makes a very toothsome dish. In the second autumn the parr, being about eighteen months old, ought to measure five or six inches in length. In the following spring those which have attained these dimensions begin to undergo a singular metamor- phosis. Their trout-like livery assumes a silvery lustre which gradually obscures the characteristic " parr -marks " (nine dark vertical bars along each side) and the scarlet spots and yellow flanks ; the little fish becomes much more athletic in figure, restless in its movements and is clad from end to end with a lovely shining coat of silver. This is his travelling dress and as soon as it is complete he starts in life as a " smolt " and hurries away with his companions to the sea. This migration takes place in April, May and June, British smolts being then a few weeks more than two or three years old, according to their forwardness in growth. The majority of British smolts probably move seaward in their second spring, though a proportion are known to remain in the river until their third season; but in Norwegian rivers Herr Dahl has ascertained that the age of smolts at migration varies between two and five winters, those in southern rivers migrating early, and the tendency to linger in the rivers increasing to- wards high latitudes.* Desperate perils await these tender little fish on their journey. Seagulls collect on the shallows and pick out thousands of potential twenty-pounders, and — sad to say — ^river trout are as bad as any pike or eel in devouring smolts. I have never seen a parr in the stomach of a trout; perhaps the young salmon is so well disguised in that stage of growth that trout do not distinguish them from their own kin, and spare them accordingly. But it is quite different after the parr has assumed the silver uniform of the smolt. I have seen seven salmon smolts taken from the stomach of a trout caught with fly in the Helmsdale river. This trout's gross weight was IJlb., but one -third of that weight was furnished by the contents of its stomach. Still more deplorable was the result of dissecting a Norwegian *The Age and Growth of Salmon and Trout in Norway, by Knut Dahl, pp. 34, 35. 8 04 d i H O to Z o THE ATLANTIC SALMON river trout of 2 lb. which was caught on a large " Durham Ranger ** in the Rauma. My attention having been drawn to the distended state of its stomach, I ripped it open and took out no fewer than ten beautiful smolts. The removal of these reduced the weight of the trout from 32 ounces to 22. Now we have followed the young salmon from the nursery to the ocean, keeping them well within ken all the time. But after parting with them In the estuary, until recently their movements were the subject of sheer conjecture and dogmatic assertion. There was a total absence of evidence as to the rate of the fish's growth or the time that should elapse before it reappeared in river as a grilse. Many fishermen believed that a smolt of an ounce weight, reaching the sea in April, might return as a grilse in June weighing two or three pounds, or in August weighing from five to seven pounds. Such a rate of growth is well-nigh incredible on the face of it, and it has now been proved beyond doubt that it does not take place. The latest light thrown upon the problem is calculated to dispel some of the most cherished convictions of fishermen, whether professional or amateur. The distinction between grilse and small salmon was never very clear except to experts, and even they could not define it very clearly. One rough test was that, whereas it is easy to land a salmon by grasping it by the tail, a grilse's tail is too slim to allow that to be done. Asked by a tyro how he could distinguish between a grilse of 8 lb. and a salmon of 6 lb., an old Scottish fisherman replied, '* Hoots ! it's as easy to ken the differ as between an auld woman and a lassie." This simple formula was sound so far as it went ; but it did not go far enough. Attempts have been made from time to time by marking smolts to solve the mystery shrouding the periodicity of salmon migration to and from the sea ; but smolts are too small and tender to carry any but the most delicate distinctive mark. A great advance was achieved as the result of an experiment undertaken in the spring of 1905 under the auspices of the Tay Salmon Fisheries Company, when Mr W. L. Calder- wood and Mr P. D. Malloch superintended the marking of smolts (that is, samlets five or six inches long) on their first migration to the sea. Six thousand five hundred smolts having been intercepted in their mi- gration, at Kinfauns, a piece of fine silver wire was inserted in the fore- part of the dorsal fin. It will readily be understood that the handling of such tender fish as smolts was a delicate matter; it was accomplished by c 9 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD using vulcanite tubes in which the fish were held during the process of marking. None of these fish was seen again during 1905, which was negative evidence against the belief entertained by many fishermen that smolts descending in April and May reascend the rivers as grilse during the ensuing summer. But during the summer of 1906 forty grilse bearing the tell-tale silver wire were taken in the nets above Perth. Their aggregate weight was 266 J lb. — an average of about 6| lb., the two heaviest grilse, taken in August, weighing 10 J lb. each.* From this the inference is fair that the smolt requires not less than a year's marine diet to fit it for revisiting fresh water. Even so, the rapidity of growth is very remarkable; a smolt weighing, say, 1| oz. is proved to increase to fifty or sixty times that weight in twelve months, and in the case of the August grilse abovementioned, to one hundred times its weight in fifteen months. There was nothing, so far, to cast doubt upon the accepted belief that all salmon first reappear in the rivers as grilse during the summer and autumn months; but this doctrine was conclusively dispelled during the season of 1907, when thirty -seven fish marked with silver wire were taken as spring salmon between February 18 and June 14, of weights ranging from 7 lb. to 13 lb. Further surprises were in store for the observers. Between July 18 and August 20 twenty-five marked fish were taken as summer salmon, and two more after the nets were off — ^thirty salmon in all, averaging 16 J lb., the heaviest being 27 lb. in weight. Again, in February and March, 1908, four salmon were taken in the Tay that had been marked with silver wire nearly three years before. Their weights were 13 lb., 15 lb., 15 lb., and 35 lb. Now, all these fish— the grilse of 1906 and the salmon of 1907 and 1908— were pronounced to be maidens — ^that is, fish which had never spawned — returning to the fresh water for the first time; whence the conclusion is that the period of a salmon's sojourn in the sea after he goes there as a smolt, is of uncertain duration, and that all salmon do not, as has hitherto been assumed, make regular annual migration. The influence of the knowledge thus acquired ought to modify considerably all legis- lation affecting such an important source of food supply as our salmon fisheries. But all smolts do not grow at an equal rate. Some are probably less *Th!B is far in excess of the weight attained by grilse in smaller rivers, the Tay and the Tweed being exceptional among Scottish waters in that respeott 10 s ■a O OS "3 1/3 H a X H O OS b u -J OS o THE ATLANTIC SALMON fortunate than others in meeting with plentiful food in the sea. For this, or for some other unexplained reason, they are not all ready or willing to return to the river at somewhat more than three years old (which was the age of the marked grilse recaptured during the summer of 1906, if it is assumed that all the smolts marked in 1905 were two years old). Previous to these experiments it was universally assumed that all salmon made their first reappearance in fresh water as grilse in summer and autumn, and that all salmon spawned, under normal conditions, each year of their lives. Fishermen were, and are, familiar with a class of small fish running up very early in the season, similar in weight to grilse — ^that is, from 4 to 10 lb.; but these have hitherto been regarded as fish that, having spawned as grilse in a previous season, were returning to the river to repeat the process. The result of the Tay netting in the first half of the season of 1907 has shown this belief to be entirely erroneous. It will be explained later how it was ascertained that these fish, and those which are next to be mentioned, were returning to the river for the first time. The average weight of summer running salmon in the Tay and most other rivers considerably exceeds that of the spring run of small fish. It had never been suspected that these larger fish were maiden salmon which had never been in the fresh water since they left it as smolts; yet such was proved to be the truth. The heaviest marked fish retaken in 1907 weighed 27 lb., and was caught on August 9, its weight being 282 times greater than when it went to the sea two years and three months previously. The results disclosed during the season of 1908 were equally surprising. The four marked fish retaken were maidens, revisiting the river for the first time, and were just completing their fifth year of life. The big fish — 35 lb. — had been in the sea two years and eleven months, during which period its weight had increased by 430 times, being on the average of about half an ounce per day. In these experiments the actual age of the fish retaken admits of no possible doubt. Six thousand smolts, all presumably two years old, were marked in the Tay in the spring of 1905 ; no others were marked in a similar way in any other river or in any other year. The data in calculating the age of these marked fish cannot be impugned ; but the evidence upon which Messrs Galderwood and Malloch base their diagnosis of these fish as ' ' maidens ' ' must be sought in another direction. 11 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD Shortly previous to the marking operations Mr H. W. Johnston was conducting an independent series of observations higher up the Tay. He first succeeded in establishing the fact that the age of a salmon, its periods of feasting in the sea, of fasting in fresh water, and its act of repro- duction, are all registered by a series of rings and lines formed upon the scales as they grow. The exposed part of the scale is almost featureless; the lines of growth are revealed by the microscope only upon that part of the scale — about two-thirds — which is embedded in the skin. Mr Johnston co-operated with Messrs Galderwood and Malloch in watching the result of marking smolts; since then research has been carried on in the Wye by Mr J. A. Hutton, in the Severn by Mr Willis Bund, and in Norway by Herr Knut Dahl, while Miss Philippa Esdaile, of Manchester University, has published some extremely useful results of her examination of scales from various rivers. While it may be taken as certain that the growth and vicissitudes of a salmon do leave a record upon its scales, it would be pre- mature to announce a definite and final interpretation of that record. Some of those engaged in investigating the matter have been bolder than others in arriving at a conclusion; until a more perfect agreement has been come to, it may be well to hold judgment in suspense, for this is a problem which can only be solved by observation upon an extended base of opera- tions.* The toughest morsel for the ordinary angler and the professional fisher- man to digest is the inference that a salmon bearing no spawning mark on its scales must of necessity be a maiden. It has been suggested that this mark is caused by the crushing together of the scale margins when the body of the fish contracts after spawning. Mr Galderwood has ascertained that a female salmon parts with twenty -three per cent of her weight in the act of spawning and Mr Johnston calculates that a spring salmon of 18 lb., measuring 18^ in. in girth, will shrink to 14^ in. in girth after spawning, its length remaining the same — ^viz., 14| in. As the number of scales remain the same before and after spawning, it is easy to understand that they get crushed together when the periphery of the fish is diminished so con- siderably; but it requires further investigation to establish the fact that spawning cannot take place without leaving its mark upon the scales. *The chief literature on the subject consists of Mr H. W. Johnston's papers in the 23rd and 25th Annual Reports of the Fishery Board for Scotland (Part ii, Appendix 2 in each volume) ; The Life of the Salmon, by W. L. Galderwood, 1907; Life-History and Habits of the Salmon, by P. D. Malloch, 1910; The Age and Growth of Salmon, by Knut Dahl, translated into English and published by the Salmon and Trout Association, Fishmongers' Hall, 1911, and a paper by Miss Philippa Esdaile, reprinted from the Proceedings of the Manchester Philosophical Society, 36 George Street, Manchester, 1912. 12 PLATE IV. Photo byl Fig. 1. LAKE TROUT (Salmo fario), so-called ferox, 6 lb. From Loch Veyatie, Sutherland. See page 99. (P. D. Malloch. Photo byl Fig. 2. (P. D. Malloch. TAY SALMON, 13 lb. : marked as a smolt, May, 1904 ; caught as a spnng fish, February 15, 1908. See page 10. THE ATLANTIC SALMON It is founding upon the absence of this mark that Mr Malloch represents a splendid pair of forty-pounders, male and female, as maiden fish revisiting their native river for the first time.* There is one other point in the seasonal movements of salmon which has not yet received the attention it deserves, though it is one which ought to prove comparatively easy of solution. The question is whether salmon, having entered a river, invariably remain in some part of it until their reproductive functions have been discharged, or do they frequently or exceptionally return to the sea for a time before spawning ? My attention was first called to the point about twelve years ago, when I was joint tenant with five others of the whole of the net and rod fishings of the rivers Gree and Minnick in south-west Scotland. We held these fishings for three years, removing all the nets and carefully preserving the water for fly- fishing only. Outside the limits of our tenancy, but within the estuary of the river at Greetown, there is a stake and bagnet fishery belonging to Mr Gaird of Gassencary. By an arrangement with Mr Birrell, the tacksman of the fishings, the weekly close-time was extended from thirty-six to sixty hours. Mr Birrell, a very intelligent person, was greatly interested in our scheme for restoring the Gree to its former productivity, which had been brought to a very low state by severe netting, of the pools above the tidal waters. A large number of fish entered the river during the spring and summer of 1900, and the upper waters were very fully stocked. One of our watchers reported to our superintendent that, early in July, the water being very low at the time, he had counted upwards of 120 salmon in his beat on the upper water, being from fifteen to twenty miles above the influence of the highest tides. Then came a spate ; after it had run down, all but a few of these fish had disappeared. They could not have run further up without their presence being perceived, because above that point the river changes its character into that of a number of confluent brooks where they must have been more plainly visible than before. The watcher therefore attributed their disappearance to poachers from the Ayrshire coal mines. July was a rainy month with a heavy run of grilse, whereof I was unable to take advantage owing to absence in Norway. When I returned, Mr Birrell reported that a considerable number of dark fish had been taken in his nets in Wigtown Bay, and spoke of it as a frequent incident at that *Lift History of the Salumi, p. 40. 13 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD season. He entertained no doubt that, although these salmon were not kelts, they had been in the fresh water for some months, and had returned to the sea without spawning. I was too late that season to obtain more than a single specimen — a male, which I sent on August 25 to the Research Laboratory of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, where investigations into the life-history of salmon had been carried on for several years. The Committee sent me the following note upon the autopsy; " Total weight, 3,129 grms; ovaries, 67 grms; length, 73 cm.; girth, 31 cm,; depth, 12 cm. No sea -lice, no parasites on gills; stomach and intestines containing yellow mucus; pyloric appendages, very little fat; gall bladder empty, muscle rich colour." The following summer, 1901, was unusually dry; there was no spate in the Cree between the first week in June and the very end of August; nevertheless, early in August Mr Birrell supplied me with two or three of these dark fish, which I forwarded to the laboratory. Unfortunately, I have never received a report upon them; and I have not had an opportunity of continuing the observation, because our lease of the river was voided by a judgment of the Courts on the death of the lessor, when only three of the term of twenty-one years had expired. But during those three years I saw and heard enough to convince me that what has been termed to -and - fro migration of salmon is a well-established movement. Moreover, it is a voluntary movement. Even if it were possible that sal- mon could be washed out of a river by summer floods, there had been no flood to disturb the dark fish taken in the sea in August, 1901. It is con- ceivable, though improbable, that salmon could be washed out of a rapid, rough Highland river like the Shin or Helmsdale (in both of which a sea- ward movement of salmon in July and August is a regular phenomenon), for these rivers have no estuary, the Shin discharging into the Kyle of Sutherland and the Helmsdale into the open German Ocean. In the Cree, however, such an explanation of the descent of spring and summer salmon is out of the question, for between the angling water and the sea nets at Creetown, where these fish were taken, the river has to traverse, first the Loch of Cree, a canal -like stretch about three miles in length, and next a winding, muddy estuary eight or nine miles long. It is physically impossible that salmon could be washed out of this river against their will ; their descent must have been deliberate and voluntary. 14 THE ATLANTIC SALMON The following extract from the Report of the Research Committee of the Edinburgh College of Physicians suggests a probable explanation of the motives of the seaward movement: ** It has been generally assumed that the passage of the salmon from the sea to the river is due to the nisus generativus. In considering the question it must be remembered that the Salmonidae are originally fresh -water fish, and that the majority of the family spend their whole life in the fresh water. Salmo salar and other allied species have apparently acquired the habit of quitting their fresh -water home for the sea in search of food, just as the frog leaves the water for the same purpose. When, on the rich marine feeding grounds, as great a store of nourishment as the body can carry has been accumulated, the fish returns to its native element, and there performs the reproductive act. That the immigration of the fish is not governed by the growth of genitalia and by the nisus generativus is shown by the fact that salmon are ascending the rivers throughout the whole year with their genitalia in all stages of development."* If further investigation should establish the fact that a seaward migration of early running fish before the spawning season is a normal phenomenon in all rivers to which fish of that class resort, then it will appear no extrava- gant hypothesis that these early salmon, having fared sumptuously for months or years in the salt water, arrive at a period of satiety and repletion, when the system becomes so stuffed with nutriment as to become tem- porarily incapable of assimilating any more; that the animal's appetite declines and ceases, and that it returns home for a period of repose and abstinence. After fasting for some weeks or months, during which the muscle slowly, but steadily, parts with its fat, it feels the need of fresh nourishment, appetite revives, and the fish drops down again to the sea, which habit and experience have taught it to regard as the only source of sufficient provender, there to restore its vigour and vitality before under- taking the exhausting strain of reproduction. Fifty years ago, or thereby, the late Mr Dunbar came to some such conclusion regarding the movements of salmon in the Thurso. Into that river, which is of very moderate volume, there is a considerable migration of salmon during the winter months. These fish are quite distinct from the ordinary run of small spring fish in February and March. They are much heavier, weighing from 15 lb. to upwards of 20 lb., and Mr Dunbar •Rtptrt, 1898, p. 169. 18 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD found that their genitalia were in a backward condition— dormant, so to say. They pass up into the comparatively shallow waters of Loch More, where, if they do not return to the sea in the interval, they must pass ten or eleven months without taking food before undertaking the effort of reproduction. In 1894 I fished the Thurso during the last week of January, and killed six of these winter fish weighing 18J lb., 18 lb., 18 lb., 17 lb., 17 lb., and 15^ lb., and two spring fish weighing 8^ lb. and 7 lb. At the close of the month the weather became remarkably warm and bright, the river falling so low that sport failed altogether. My companion being tired of fruitlessly flogging glassy pools, went up to Loch More, broke open the boat-house, and got afloat between 2 and 3 p.m. By 4 o'clock, when darkness comes on at that season in those high latitudes, he had landed with fly four salmon weighing from 16 to 20 lb. Evidently the loch was well stocked with heavy fish; but the experiment could not be repeated, for the syndicate which then rented the Thurso fishings disapproved of winter angling on Loch More, and decreed that in future no line should be cast on it until April 1. They did this in the belief that these large fish intended to remain in the loch throughout the fishing season, and would afford them sport in the pleasant spring and summer season. But would these fish so remain ? Mr Dunbar claimed to have proved that they returned to the sea after a short time and stated that he frequently caught them in the nets at the river mouth of which he had control. My subsequent experiences in the Cree, as well as reports which I have received from the Shin and the Helmsdale, accord well with Mr Dunbar's observations. The problem is one well worthy of further investigation, not only in the interest of abstract science, but because of the practical bearing it has upon the general management of salmon fisheries. It may also modify the conclusions arrived at from the age -marks on scales. It is with some trepidation that I now approach another problem in the life -history of the salmon , for it is one upon which I hold what may be considered the unpopular view, the opponents of which sometimes express disagreement in terms of greater force than urbanity. The question is whether salmon feed or fast in fresh water. Such naturalists who have given attention to the subject and have had adequate opportunity of studying it on the spot have come to an almost unanimous opinion that salmon do not feed, in the sense of taking regular nourishment, after leaving the salt water. They found this opinion upon the total inadequacy of many rivers teeming 16 THE ATLANTIC SALMON with salmon to provide food for the multitude, upon the almost invariable emptiness of the stomach of salmon taken in fresh water, upon the col- lapsed condition of the gall-bladder, and upon the absence of all trace of food in the intestine. Dr Miescher Ruesch, stationed at Basle, 500 miles from the mouth of the Rhine, spent four years in the physiological examina- tion of salmon, in the course of which 2,162 passed through his hands. In all that number there were only two salmon (male kelts) in which he could detect any trace of food. Each of these two contained some scales of a small cyprinoid fish. In the lower part of the Rhine Dr Hoek examined 2,000 salmon, in only seven of which did he detect remains of food. Now the Rhine, unlike such highland torrents as the Awe or the Spey in Scot- land, or the Sundal Elv or Aaro in Norway, contains plenty of succulent fare did salmon care to have it for the catching. But they don*t so care: they arrive from the sea with their tissues stuffed with nutriment and with no appetite for more. They left their native river to seek food; when they have absorbed as much as they can assimilate, they go home and turn their thoughts to matrimonial prospects. It may be urged that the investigations of Messrs Grey and Tosh on Tweed salmon brought out a different result from those of Miescher Ruesch and Hoek on the Rhine fish. So it did. In 1894 and 1895 they exam- ined 1 ,442 salmon taken in the nets at Tweedmouth and found food in 128, equal to nine per cent. Aye, but of what did that food consist ? It was carefully analysed and consisted almost exclusively of the remains of marine organisms — herrings, sand-eels, whiting, haddock, crustaceans and sea-worms. The only exceptions were one caterpillar, four feathers, some blades of grass and a beech -leaf \* These salmon had taken the food before running into the estuary where they were captured. In connexion with the question how much nourishment a salmon could find, were he in search of it, in any of the rivers frequented by that species, it should be borne in mind that the general stock of salmon in European waters, especially those of Great Britain and Ireland, has been severely depleted. It is reasonable to suppose that in primitive times, before nets and other contrivances had been effectively used, the Atlantic salmon frequented the rivers of western and northern Europe in hordes as pro- digious as the kindred species do at this day on those parts of the Pacific coast not yet depleted in the interest of canneries. If, therefore, there is not food enough in our rivers to support the moderate number of salmon *F»urt*tnth Annual Report, Fishery Board for Scotland, Part ii, Note 2. D 17 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD that now ascend them, much less could it have sufficed for the enormous shoals which used to invade them long ago. This is what I have referred to as the unpopular view of this question. The popular opinion is that maintained by many good anglers and prac- tically by all professional fishermen and gillies. Salmon, they say, " come on the feed," just as trout and other fresh-water fish do. If you remark upon the fact that it is virtually impossible to find a salmon in a river with anything in its stomach or intestines, you are met with the assertion that salmon have the power of ejecting food so soon as they feel the hook. If you press the point that salmon taken in the sea are generally distended with food (Dr Kingston Barton took six full -sized herrings from the stomach of a salmon taken off Montrose*), the answer will be — " Weel, I ken naethin' aboot that," or some similarly disparaging observation. Of course the most plausible argument, and the one most difficult to confute, is based on the undoubted fact that salmon will take minnows, prawns, worms and other baits in fresh water. It can scarcely be doubted that, in exceptional cases, they do seize these objects with the intention of eating them; but my opinion remains unshaken that the vast majority of salmon which take a fly or other moving lure (and how very many fish refuse to do so) are not impelled by hunger or appetite, but simply by a predacious impulse or habit similar to that which causes a terrier to kill a score of rats without the faintest desire or intention of devouring one of them. We must leave it at that, content with the reflection that, whereas a trout fisher not only must know that trout are feeding before he can hope to do execution among them, but also it behoves him to ascertain what they are feeding on, a salmon fisher runs an equal chance of success, whether he is a believer or a sceptic about salmon feeding in fresh water. *Journal of Anatomy and Pkysioloey, vol. xxxiv. 18 THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT By the RIGHT HON. SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART. HE foregoing chapter having been occupied with fact, we now enter a region wherein fancy may exercise legitimate sway — namely, that in which the salmon angler's equipment is dealt with. For this there is neither law nor limit; the rein may be given to preference, and the utmost that the present writer (or any other) can do is to mention those articles which have best stood the test of his experience. It is no longer incumbent on the fisherman to comply with the injunction of Dame Juliana Berners (or of whomsoever was the actual author of the delectable "Boke of St Albans"): "Yf ye woll be crafty in anglynge, ye must fyrste leme to make your harnays." There are plenty of good tradesmen to save you that trouble. On the whole, perhaps, the rod deserves first consideration, for it is only in Lover's rollicking extravaganza, "Handy Andy," that I ever read of anybody going salmon-fishing without one. Moreover, I am not qualified to speak from experience of salmon fishing other than with the fly (never having killed but two salmon with any other lure, one of these fish having been taken when spinning for " ferox " in Loch Arkaig), and in fly-fishing the rod is of supreme importance. In rods, as in other human affairs, fashion changeth, and there has been considerable modification in the material, length and balance of salmon rods within the last half century. Before considering modern developments, will the reader refresh himself by perusing once again the prescription for rod-making in the aforesaid "Boke of St Albans," the oldest treatise on angling in the English language ? " Yf ye woll be crafty in anglynge, ye must fyrste lerne to make your harnays — ^that is to wyte your rodde, your lynes of dyvers colours. . . . And how ye shall make your rodde craftly, here I shall teche you. Ye shall kytte betweene Myghelmas and Candylmas a fayr staffe of a fadom and a halfe longe, and armgrete,* of hasyll, wyllowe or ashe; and beyth hym in an hote ovyn, and set hym evyn; thenne let hym cole and drye a moneth. Take thenne and frette hym fastef with a cockeshote cordej and bynde hym to a fourme • A» thick as your fore-arm. t Bind it tight. X The cord of which nets for woodcocks were made, or by which the nets were secured. 19 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD or an evyn square grete tre. Take thenne a plummers wire that is evyn and streyte and sharpe at one ende; hete the sharpe ende in a charcole fiyre tyll it be whyte, and brenne the staffe therewyth thorugh, ever streyte in the pythe at bothe endes tyll they mete. Any after that, brenne hym in the nether ende wyth a byrde broche* and wyth other broches eche gretter than other, and ever the grettest the laste, so that ye make your hole aye tapre well. Thenne let hym lye styll and kelef two dayes. Unfrette hym thenne and lete hym drye in an hous roof in the smoke tyll he be thrugh drye. In the same season take a fayr yerde of grene hasyll and beth him evyn and streyghte, and lete it drye with the staffe. And whan they ben drye, make the yerde mete unto the hole in the staffe, unto halfe the length of the staffe. And to perfourme that other halfe of the croppe, take a fayr shote of blacke thorn, crabbe tree, medeler or of jenypre kytte in the same season, and well bethyd and streyghte, and frette theym togyder fetely soo that the croppe may justly entre all into the sayd hole. Thenne shave your staffe and make hym tapre well. Thenne vyrellj the staffe at bothe endes wyth longe hopis of yren or laton^ in the clennest wise, wyth a pyke in the nether ende fastnyd wyth a rennynge vyce to take in and oute your croppe. Thenne set your croppe an handful! within the over ende of your staffe in suche wise that it be as bigge there as in ony other place above. Thenne arme your croppe at thover ende downe to the frette wyth a lyne of vi heeres, and dubbe the lyne and frette it fast in the toppe wyth a bowe to fasten on your lyne. And thus shall ye make you a rodde so prevy that ye may walke therwyth, and there shall no man wyte where abowte ye goo. It woU be lyghte and full nymbyll to fyshe wyth at your luste." He who has experienced the zest added to killing a salmon when this is done with a fly of his own manufacture, may judge how greatly the pleasure must have been enhanced for him who had constructed his own rod. The chief difference between a modern salmon-rod and one of the kind in favour a generation ago consists in the greater pliancy of the former, its heavier top and lighter butt. Ash and hickory, the stand-by of our sires, for butt and middle joint, with lance -wood and bamboo for the top, have gone clean out of vogue, and the best salmon-rods are now •Skewer. fCool. I Ferrule. $ Brass or bronze. 30 < O z & a X CO ''^ or^ "^ 2; o CO o a o nSHING AT iTn^ir or aa evyn SKfuare ti^i «r)i']i and (ttr«|te and fharpe at him ntyn aad afer«y>:"^ tbcy b«a rfrviv iv» and brcnne th# atajla dt«- :he endea tyll they 7 iir«tie hym thenne and lete It h» ba thrui^h drye. iA grene haayll and b^< with the stafie. And whan ito the hole in the stafT'^ perftwmje that oii . \hb« tree, ao ymO betlryd and atf«|g^ )iHitty «&U« : hym tar^^ -^ h to|ya %*ytfa a bow« to faaten rm Tm^- nd tfnm sfmH rtr male*' a rodde «u> pre>'y that ye n-. lan wyca where ahowta ye too :h« .>ur lu' ue wno Atta experienced the ze&c Aoaaa lu jauing u &;umon when thia la 4ooa with a fly of his own manufacture, may judge how greatly the plaaanre misat have been enhanced for him who had confttnictpd h{% own rod. Tha dilaf dUference between a modern salmon-rod and c«a at the ^ In tavour a generation ago consists in the grc >er, t«a Iwavicr top and iightar bott. Ab' .,: our flimt4 far bntt and mlMie Joint, wi.<> tnfit Its TO dona rlp^'tn out of voAU'is . .in< H £}tKaa -mdfl 'J (or the ari^ now THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT made of greenheart throughout. In pronouncing this opinion I do not wish to decry the split -cane rods with steel core, a comparatively recent innovation of American origin, but now regularly manufactured by British makers. They are beautifully finished articles, but I have never been able to detect their superiority in performance to good greenheart in any single respect, and consequently fail to see the merit of paying three or four times the price of a greenheart for the more elaborate weapon.* Of late years opinion has veered in favour of shorter rods than were wielded by our salmon -fishing sires. I was brought up to consider 18 ft. as the regulation length, and continued for many years to suffer unnecessary fatigue in consequence. Francis Francis, writing in the 'sixties, prescribes a rod 16i to 17J ft. long "for a man of short stature and not too robust frame; for a man of moderate capacity, from 17 to 18J ft., or a little more; for a tall, strong man, from 18 or 18^ ft. to 20 or even 21 ft. I have known as much as 22 ft. used."t He adds a story sufficiently terrifying to scare some people off salmon fishing altogether, to wit, that the Master of Lovat of that day used to wield a rod of 24 ft. in the Beauly ! Now I learnt as a youngster more about angling in general from Francis's pages than I ever did from any other book, except Stewart's "Practical Angler." Francis fished in many waters, rambling north and south, east and west, hospitably received in many a lodge, gossiping incessantly and picking up yarns and miscellaneous information, much of it highly worth remembering. But there is only one way of accounting for an experienced fisher like himself prescribing such immoderate length in salmon-rods, namely, that the weight was distributed differently in the days of ash and hickory from what it is in the modern weapon of greenheart. There is now far more weight put into the upper joints than formerly, enabling the angler to deliver a heavy plaited line in the teeth of a strong wind in a manner impossible with the old-fashioned light-topped rod and silk-and- hair reel-line. A 16-ft. greenheart with powerful top may be backed to lodge a fly at quite as great a distance as the older and longer rod could accomplish. But there has come to pass another and most commendable innovation through the invention of adhesive tape. It was always known and admitted that, weight for weight and bulk for bulk, a rod with spliced joints was *It is different with trout-rods. For a single-handed trout-rod there is nothing to equal good split cane. ti4 Book on Anglint, p. 294. 21 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD sweeter in hand, more powerful at work and less subject to accident than one with ferruled joints; but the greater convenience and quickness in setting up a ferruled rod brought ferrules into almost universal use. To bind up splices with sticky cord at the beginning of each day's fishing, and to unbind them in the evening, was a trial to one's patience. It was worse when, on cold mornings, the cord was not sticky, for then the lashing was apt to prove insecure. The disadvantage of ferrules was far more serious. If you forgot to bind the wire loops together the middle or top joint would be sure to slip out in the act of casting. If you did not so forget, the ferrules had a nasty trick of refusing to surrender their hold when the rod had to be taken down. Worst of all, the top joint was very apt to snap short off immediately above the ferrule if a sudden strain came upon it, such as hooking a fish unexpectedly or catching something in the back cast. Then what a treat was prepared for the angler. He was pretty sure to have come away from home leaving his pliers reposing in the tackle box; fingers, nails, teeth — all may have to be employed, with interjections of corresponding variety and force, upon the wretched stump sticking half an inch out of the ferrule. Oh, fai passi par Id several times! I remember a fish taking my fly under the bank in the swirly Marrable pool on Helmsdale, just as I was withdrawing it for another cast. Crack went the top joint close to the fer- rule. The fish ran about for a while, till the broken top slid down the line and hit him on the nose. Away he went at high speed and back came the top joint and the fly without him! I have written about ferrules in the past tense, as if they were quite obsolete. So they are in truth, albeit there be those anglers so conservative as to persevere with them, just as there are elderly ladies who have never been in a motor car. But I have never met with anybody who has gone back voluntarily from the use of a rod spliced with adhesive tape to one fitted with ferrules. It is quite feasible to make the change upon an old and favourite rod by sacrificing about a foot in length. I have a good green- heart, originally 18 ft. long and ferruled, from which the ferrules have been removed and splices substituted, reducing it to about 16 J ft. It is now equally serviceable as before the operation, and leaves one at the end of a long day with a far less disagreeable sensation in back, shoulders and arms than it did when of its pristine proportions. Splicing has not yet been applied to split -cane rods, though probably if anglers who prefer that material were to insist upon having spliced 22 THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT joints, the ingenuity of manufacturers would prove equal to meeting the demand. At present the parts of a split -cane are united by some kind of patent lock-fast joint, which is free from all the objectionable qualities of the old slip ferrules, except that inseparable from the insertion of rigid lengths of metal in a rod which ought to possess uninterrupted gradation of flexibility from butt to point. The rings which convey the line from the reel to the point of the rod are the source of some trouble. In the old pattern of salmon-rod they used to hang loose, but standing rings are now almost universal. There can be no doubt that they are preferable, were it only for the advantage they afford of allowing loose line to be released from the hand in order to obtain greater length in casting; but, being rigid, they have an objectionable propensity to getting knocked off in contact with rocks in fishing or with heavy luggage in travelling. The best are of the upright "snake" pattern, made of hardened steel lacquered. Owing to the steel -like elasticity and strength of greenheart, the butt is made far more slender than was possible with ash or hickory; where- fore a sheathing of cork over the grip will be found a great addition to comfort in handling. The rod may be stained to any colour, or left the natural light yellow of the greenheart. Each one may indulge his prepossession or prejudice; for my own part I have a preference for a very dark olive stain. A good rod ought to last a lifetime if reasonable means are taken to keep it good. Do not tie it up too tightly in its cover, nor lean it up against a wall during the close season. Every careful fisher should have a rod -rack in some cool quarter of his house, where the rods may either be suspended from hooks by loops at the end of the covers, or rested horizontally on pegs. Never allow a good rod to become an indifferent one for want of a fresh coat of varnish; and if you wish to avoid disappointment and discomfort, let this be applied by a professional tackle maker of repute. OLD AND NEW REELS The reel is second in importance to no part of the angler's outfit, for if that goes wrong all is wrong— probably beyond repair at the waterside. Izaak Walton never saw a fishing-reel, so it may have been just as well for his peace of mind that, as may be inferred from the nonsense he wrote 33 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD about salmon-fishing, he never hooked a salmon; but he had heard of persons who "use a wheel about the middle of their rod or near their hand, which is to be observed better by seeing one of them than by a large demonstration of words."* The evolution of the salmon -reel was a slow process. A century and a half after Izaak Walton had made his last cast — ^to wit, at the beginning of the eighteenth century — it had assumed a character, on the Tweed at least, which it would puzzle a modern practitioner to manipulate. The reel was attached to a broad leathern belt round the angler's waist, whence it was termed, Scottice, a "belly pirn." It was not long before some in- genious mortal hit upon the notion of attaching the reel to the rod instead of to his person. The pattern in vogue continued to be a long-barrelled, shallow affair with which it perplexes one to understand how our forbears were content to set to work, and how it should have taken them so long to perceive that winding power might be increased by enlarging the diameter of the drum. They tried ** multipliers " first, which quickened the revo- lution by a small ratchet wheel working upon a greater one; but they soon found out that what was gained in speed (when all worked smoothly) was lost in power, and that the strain of a heavy fish was exceedingly apt to cause a jam at the very moment when only free play could avert disaster. '* Whatever you do," wrote Scrope (whose name, dear reader, deserves reverence from all good anglers and must be pronounced as If written Scroop), "whatever you do have nothing to say to multiplying reels." Doubtless he had used some strong language about them, for he goes on to describe how he hooked a salmon in the Boldside water on Tweed which •' executed some very heavy runs, and so disconcerted the ma- chinery of my multiplier as almost to dislocate the wheels. The line gave out with starts and hitches, so that I was obliged to assist it with my hands. To wind up it resolutely refused, so that I was compelled to gather in the line in large festoons when it was necessary to shorten it, and again to give these out when the fish made a run." Scrope got his fish in the end, but not until three hours of a good fishing day had been consumed in the process, which, with more efficient gear, might have been accom- plished in ten minutes. The adventure bore good fruit, for Scrope tells us how thereafter he caused a reel to be made on a better design with a large cylinder to increase the winding power. Thus the first approach was made to the modern salmon-reel, which has since been perfected by "Tht Compleot Angler, chap. vii. 24 THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT increasing tlie diameter of the side-plates, shortening the axle to bring them nearer together, and finally by abolishing the free lever and attach- ing the handle to one of the plates, which is made to revolve. A few sub- sidiary improvements have since been devised without interfering with simplicity of action, the most meritorious being the insertion of a screw check on the fixed plate, whereby the action can be rendered stiffer or easier at pleasure. Some makers cause the plate to revolve on ball- bearings, but for my part I can perceive no advantage in this refinement, having fished pretty constantly for three-and-forty years with one simple check reel purchased from a maker now no more, the late Mr Paton of Perth. In choosing an instrument which may be expected to last, like this one, for half a century, the prime cost becomes of secondary importance; so, if the angler consults his own comfort in fishing, he will not grudge a little extra expense in purchasing a reel made of alumin — an alloy of aluminium — ^which is considerably lighter than brass or gun-metal. Let no one of common prudence be seduced into buying a cheap reel, which is pretty sure to betray him in the heat of a contest. And when he has got the article, let him bestow a little care in keeping it clean and properly oiled. I was a spectator one summer morning of a bitter tragedy. We were sitting — a friend and myself — in the verandah of a Norwegian fishing lodge. We had been fishing our respective beats since 6 a.m.; it was now 10 o'clock, the hour when the sun, escaping from behind the Romsdal- horn, flares right down the river till he passes behind the jagged crests of the Troldtinder about 4 p.m. Angling is suspended in the presence of Phoebus, the off-time being devoted to baths, breakfast, siesta and a late luncheon, until fishing is resumed at 4 o'clock and continued till 10 p.m., which brings one to the supper table. On this particular morn- ing the third member of our party, a lady, having got astir not quite so early as ourselves, had remained out a little longer. We could see her rod flashing rhythmically in the sun as she fished a pool near the house from a boat, but the boat and its occupants were hidden from our view by the river bank. Suddenly the rod assumed the form of an arc. ** By Jove ! she's in a fish ! " quoth the lady's spouse, and away we trotted across the intervening patch of meadow to witness the sport. By the time we arrived on the scene it was in process of being transferred to another pool; for the salmon, a very heavy one ("Megget stor lax," as old Tostern afterwards observed with a mournful shake of his head) was £ 25 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD runniiig hard down stream, faster than the boat could follow. Already full one hundred yards of line were out; the point of the rod was dangerously low. "Give him line!" we shouted from the bank. "I can't," was the despairing reply, "the reel's gone wrong." It had indeed; it was hopelessly jammed. The tackle was good enough, and stood several violent wrenches, but the strength of the stream and the weight of the fish combined to overcome it; the rod -point was dragged under water for a fateful moment; next moment it reappeared with a piece of limp line dangling from it. The reel, a new one, was afterwards submitted to autopsy, which re- vealed no defect in make or material, but a total. absence of lubricant. Revolving rapidly after the racing fish, the metal had become heated, the spring check ground the racket into fine chips which choked the action, and thus a fine salmon — perhaps the salmon of that season or of many seasons — ^was lost through lack of a drop of oil ! Ninety -nine fishermen out of every hundred attach the reel so that when it is under the rod the handle is to the right. I would strongly coun- sel the beginner to get into the habit of fishing with the reel put on the other way, with the handle to the left. Once this habit is acquired, the action becomes automatic of turning the rod directly a fish is hooked so as to bring the reel uppermost with the handle to the right. The result is that, while playing the fish, the line lies along the smooth surface of the rod instead of being supported only on the rings with correspondingly in- creased friction. It was the neglect of this precaution which probably brought to a tragic conclusion the adventure so graphically described by the present Bishop of Bristol in the "Cornhill Magazine" for 1869. He was harling with a minnow the broad tidal water near the junction of the Earn with the Tay, where he hooked a very large salmon about half an hour after noon. It took him far down into the firth and remained master of the situation for about four hours. Then a strand of the reel -line parted about twenty yards from the end " through the constant friction of the wet line run- ning through the rings for so many hours." They managed to get the fish to lie quietly under the boat while the old line was knotted to a fresh one on another rod. It was pitch dark by this time, and the contest was resumed as they drifted up channel towards Elcho. It finished about midnight by the hooks being pulled off the tackle and the salmon going free. 26 THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT Some may suppose that the position of the reel had nothing to do with the catastrophe. I maintain that it had much to do with it. Had the first line rested on the rod it would not have been frayed by the rings. After the fresh line was fastened to the other, the knot prevented the bishop from shortening it in fighting the fish, otherwise it is impossible to believe that a salmon, handled with vigorous discretion, would not have been forced to surrender far within the limit of eleven hours during which this one maintained the fight, and which proved too much for the en- durance of the tackle. This brings us to consider the line itself, which, like other parts of the equipment, is now very different in make and material from that which contented anglers of an older time. In my youth, now sadly remote, I have seen lines used of horsehair pure and simple; then came into vogue a mixture of silk and hair; nowadays one never dreams of using any but pure silk, plaited and dressed with a waterproof compound of oil, wax and resin. Such lines are made either with a perfectly smooth glassy surface, or with one slightly rough or granulated; I prefer the latter, and a line giving a square section rather than a round one; but that may be mere fancy. The really important matter is that the line should neither be too light for cutting its way through a gale nor so heavy as not to respond readily to the rod lifting a good length of it off the water. The adept in shooting out a few yards from his hand in the last motion of the cast will find that manoeuvre greatly facilitated by the following process. Rub twenty or thirty yards of the free end of the line lightly with fisherman's white wax (a compound of beeswax and resin); then put on an old pair of gloves, take a lump of black lead, such as your house- maid doth make the grate to shine withal, and rub it over the waxed surface. It is a dirty operation, but it confers upon the line an enduring polish which causes it to slip through the rings in the sweetest manner imaginable. Forty, or at most fifty, yards of this heavy fore-line, duly tapered, will suffice, spliced at the inner end to 100 or 150 yards of the admirable material known as tarpon line. Although the bulk of tarpon line is less than one-fourth of the heavy line, in strength it is fully equal to it. It is too light to use in casting, but that is the very quality which renders it so invaluable as backing to the heavy fore -line. In a big river a bold fish will often take out 100 or 150 yards of line; if that length consisted entirely 27 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD of heavy line, the strain might prove too great for the casting line or the hold of the hook. It is an immense advantage to have the use of a thin line as strong as any other part of the tackle. It may seem impertinent to advise the angler to make sure that the inner end of the line is securely fastened to the drum of the reel; but the following incident may serve to show that such precaution is not alto- gether superfluous. We were fishing — ^three of us — ^the Logen Elv, com- monly called by English visitors the Sand river, because it flows into the Sandsfjord beside the little town of Sand. It is a fine sweeping river, and just above the village it tumbles over the Sandsfos, in surmounting which shoals of salmon make a fine display in athletics. Below this foss stretches a long streamy pool with a name pronounced Osen, which I fancy must be written Aasen according to Norse orthography. It is a favourite haunt of heavy fish and opens straight into the fjord, whither salmon not in- frequently make their way when hooked. One of our party, of mature age, but a neophyte in fishing, conceived a strong predilection for this pool, by reason of it being better adapted for bait fishing than for the fly, wherefore he was absolved from the irksome necessity of casting. When Aasen came in this gentleman's beat, he would spend long hours dangling a prawn out of a boat, and certainly, after he had acquired some little experience in handling a fish, he was not wont to dangle it in vain. One evening, however, he returned sadly crestfallen. He had hooked a very large salmon in Aasen which made tracks straight for the salt water. Fast as they could follow in the boat, the fish went faster; by the time they were out upon the open fjord there remained but a few turns of backing on the drum of the reel. Even these were soon torn away, and then — ^the drama closed in catastrophe. The line had not been knotted to the drum; the angler was left with an empty reel in his hand and the salmon went free — ^if free it could be deemed, with a cruel prawn tackle in its jaws and 200 yards of line towing behind. Mention of Aasen brings to mind another contretemps of which it was the scene. In this case the angler was not to blame for what was sheer misadventure. He had hooked a large fish in Aasen which sailed steadily and stiffly out into the fjord. Arriving there, it appeared to lie down and sulk; no amount of pressure from any direction availed to budge it. After prolonged attempts without any result, it was decided that either the fish must be had out somehow or the tackle sacrificed. Bidding the boatman 28 THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT take the line in his hands and haul steadily upon it, Mr T stood by with the rod ready for a rush on the part of the fish. It yields! Slowly, foot by foot, the line is recovered, but the fish behaves strangely. So far from making a rush, it hangs heavily, tugging vigorously as it slowly approached the surface. The suspense becomes trying, for the next phase of the con- test must be violent. At length the secret of this prolonged inertia comes out. There is brought to the surface no salmon, but — a coil of barbed wire ! The salmon in its flight had bolted through this obstacle lying on the bottom of the sea, left the hooks fixed in it, and the coils unwinding had caused the lifelike tugging on the line which deceived the fisherman. After the reel-line comes the casting-line, for which silkworm gut has long been unchallenged as the best material. The challenge, however, has come at last, and from a very formidable quarter; but of that presently. Silkworm gut has many virtues; at its best it is strong, durable and, being translucent, not easily detected by the fish. Salmon-fishers gene- rally buy casting -lines ready made up, the usual and best arrangement consisting of a few lengths of treble -twisted gut to continue the taper of the reel -line, the rest of the cast being of single gut. For early spring fishing the entire cast may be of treble gut; machine -twisted being, in my opinion, far preferable to hand-twisted, because in the machine -twisted the different lengths are woven together without knots. Tackle -makers, unless otherwise instructed, usually make up casts to measure nine feet in length. For early fishing at least this is one -third too long; anything beyond six feet merely increases the difficulty of casting in rough weather and affords no compensating advantage. Even for summer fishing and autumn fishing in fine weather I prefer not to fish with more than seven feet of gut cast, which is quite enough to keep the reel line away from the fish's line of sight. Despite its many virtues, silkworm gut has also its defects. So long as water and weather allow of treble gut being used, nothing can be more satisfactory in every respect. I think we generally abandon it too soon and with too little reason. Probably thin gut treble twisted is not more visible in the water than single gut stout enough to hold a salmon; it is quite as strong and, if machine -twisted, is without knots, which are always objectionable and are generally the weakest points in any trace. But in accordance with an unwritten law, after the rough work in spring is over, treble gut is reserved for that part of the cast which is nearest the reel-line. 29 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD Single gut is a beautiful material; but, like certain other beautiful creatures, it is treacherous. It retains its beauty in old age; but all its virtue departs with youth. Treble -gut casts maybe trusted through three or four years, but an infinity of discomfiture would be avoided if every scrap of single gut were burnt at the end of every fishing season. It costs something to do this, but probably not half as much as a man's cartridges in a single day's cover -shooting, which he blazes away without considering the expense. The best economy in single gut is to buy or make it in casts of not more than 4^ feet which can be looped to 2^ feet of treble gut next the reel -line. Then, if you are lucky in getting the right stuff, it may last you through the best part of a season. I have landed forty -six salmon on one single gut -cast; on the other hand, I have lost fish which were fighting in a most reasonable manner through new, or at least newly -bought, single gut parting in an unaccountable way. If the angler allows his gillie to put together his gear, it is ten chances to one that he will find that the gut casting -line has been attached to the reel -line by the clumsy expedient shown in Fig. 2, Plate VI . I could hardly believe my eyes when I read the recommendation of this fastening at page 26 of "Dry-Fly Fishing," for that excellent work is from the pen of Mr F. M. Halford, a master of the craft of trout -fishing, well known to readers of the "Field" newspaper under the pseudonym of "Detached Badger." Aliquando dormitat Homerus — the greatest men have their moments of weakness ; it must have been in one of these that this high authority was lent to the lubberly hitch which local fishermen are so prone to use. The workmanlike way of attaching the cast is to pass the free end of the reel -line through the loop of the gut and to form the indispensable figure- of-eight knot (Fig. 1, Plate VI). Mr Halford's hitch is safe enough, but it is not nearly so neat and, in fishing fine water, is apt to make an un- desirable wake. Now as to the substitutes for gut above referred to. First as to the material known as Talerana, which is understood to be some preparation of silk. It is absurdly cheap, costing about 2s. 6d. for fifty yards; it is of extraordinary strength, and it is knotless. I realized its merits in fight- ing a twenty -pound Spey salmon which was bent upon running down stream into a mass of timber that lay across the fairway. Had the fish succeeded, he must have smashed the line; so I thought that if there was to be a smash, it should take place in the open, I held him with all my might, exerting a force which would have been impossible with single 30 ATE VI. LIMERICK SCALE FOR SALMON HOOKS Superfine Limerick Hoolcs 13 I u 15 i6 i/l i8 Round Bend Hooks {7I16I 15I 14 1 r> nn Pi n n n n n n n Pennel Limerick Eyed Hooks NlwNV uu 4 f 0 uu LjUvJ uu Old n»« 17 16 U U 13 n 11 10 a 8 7 6 Sneck Bend Turn-Down Eyed llLLLtu u u U u U 000 00 0123 <> s e 7 s SCALE OF TROUT HOOKS THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT gut, and — I conquered. I thought I had found perfection at last, and before starting for Norway in 1911 I bought some fresh coils of Talerana. It betrayed me. Twice I was broken on the rise, the rupture taking place at the figure-of-eight knot uniting a very small fly with a metal eye to the cast. That was enough to shake anybody's faith, and I returned to single gut. I had only the previous season's casts in my book, but they looked perfectly fresh and strong. Twice before the end of that season I was broken again, not on the rise, but in fair play with fish in swift streams. The next material I tried was Yarvon fibre, which behaved beautifully. It is as strong, as cheap and as knotless as Talerana, and, so far, I have had no accident with it. On one occasion, fishing the Helmsdale, I hooked a bush on the far bank. Unable to free the hold, I had to take the line in hand and pull off. It took a very strong pull — ^the Yarvon eventually part- ing at the knot of the loop into which the reel -line was fastened. That determined me in future either to have the loop on the reel -line, and attached the Yarvon to it with a figure-of-eight, or to have the loop on the Yarvon securely whipped and varnished. Now a casting-line of single gut may cost anything from 4s. up to 15s. The loss of such a cast would be considerable. In the case of Yarvon it was exactly 2id.! I was well pleased with the experiment. Yarvon showed advantage over Talerana in that the end to which the fly has to be attached does not fray out. But a few days later I received a damper in the shape of a letter from a friend on Speyside who had lost a fish through Yarvon breaking at a knot accidentally formed in casting. I instituted experiments imme- diately with a steelyard upon Yarvon dry and Yarvon soaked, with the startling result that it broke at a knot under the following strain: Medium salmon, 5^ lb. dry, 6 lb. soaked. Strong salmon, 6 lb. dry, 8 lb. soaked. Obviously, this is not good enough. It is true that nobody can exert a strain of 4 lb. upon the line with a 16 -ft. rod, but the sudden wrench of a heavy fish in strong water may easily do so for a moment. Bar knots, I consider Yarvon splendid material for casting -lines, and I intend to continue using it till I come to grief; but a very sharp look-out will have to be kept against knots in casting. In the matter of hooks the fisherman has the choice of a considerable variety of bends or shapes, but the exact pattern is of far less im- portance than the quality and temper of the metal. Many a good salmon 31 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD has been lost through the hook snapping off short behind the barb. It is a trite saying that the strength of every object must be gauged by its weakest part, yet how often does one see flies tied upon hooks that have been thinned away in forming the barb. It requires but a moderate exer- cise of intelligence to convince one that the wire should be as thick at that particular part as in any other; and, if foresight should fail to warn one of this, experience will be sure to enforce the lesson, for it is immediately behind the barb that fracture most commonly takes place* whether in a fish's mouth or by striking a stone in casting. It is not easy to decide which is most objectionable — ^under -tempered hooks that bend, or over -tempered hooks that snap, under strain; but it is quite within anybody's power to avoid both of these defects by pur- chasing from tackle-makers of repute, who will not supply any but hooks of the best manufacture and submit each hook to a separate test. There are two or three firms of hook-makers of so good reputation that their names alone are guarantees of excellence of quality, but there is one re- spect in which the angler's discrimination is required, namely, in the proportion the barb is made to bear to the bend. It is the custom of manufacturers to maintain the same proportion in all sizes of hook, thereby misinterpreting the true function of the barb, which is to prevent the withdrawal of the point after it has penetrated. A small barb effects this just as surely as a large one, and has the advantage of being much more likely than the large one to bury itself in the thin cartilaginous, muscular, or membranous layers which protect the bones of a salmon's mouth. The exaggerated barbs which one sometimes sees, especially in hooks of the Limerick bend, must considerably interfere with the chance of firmly hooking a fish. To make what I mean clear I have taken from my box two old flies, both of which have landed several spring salmon, the hook of one having an exaggerated barb (Fig. 3, Plate VI), that of the other a moderate one (Fig. 4). It will be seen how much more readily the smaller barb may be buried than the larger one; it might with advantage be made even smaller; for a barb, however small, is quite enough to retain a good hold. Provided the shank is not too short or the barb too big, the pattern of hook may be left to the angler's discretion. I suppose that in salmon fishing there are 100 Limerick bend hooks used for every one of other patterns, and, subject to the conditions above mentioned, there is per- haps none better. Many years ago, before I took to using double irons, 32 THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT I felt dissatisfied with the performance of Limericlc hooks and gave the Sproat bend a thorough trial. It was claimed for the Sproat that from the point of the hook not being ranked outwards, the line pulled at a flatter angle than with the Limerick, as shown in Fig. 5, whereby the point was more likely to be driven home than to scratch the fish's mouth. I devoted ten days' consecutive fishing to testing (1) the Limerick or quasi- Limerick in common use in Scotland, (2) Messrs Hutchinson's Kendal Limerick, which is more finely barbed, and (3) the Sproat bend. The result stands as follows in my fishing book, having been carefully noted at the time. K. stands for "killed," H. for "hooked and lost," R. for "raised, and perhaps pricked." No. 1. K. R. K. R. K. K. H. H. R. R. R H. K. R. R. K. R. R. H. (line broke). R. H. (hook broke). No. 2. K. R. R. R. R. R. K. K. n. R. R. R. K. R. R. R. R. H. H. R R. K. K. K. K. K. K. H. H. R. R. R. R. K. H. (hook broke), K. K. R. K. K. R. K. No. 3. K. K. K. K. K. R K. R. R. K. (foul hooked), H. (hook broke), R K. H. R. H. R. R. In this trial the Sproat certainly came out best. Out of eighteen rises it killed ten, lost three (one from a broken hook) and missed or pricked five. The Kendal Limerick out of forty -two rises killed seventeen, hooked and lost seven (one from a broken hook), missed or pricked eighteen. The Scottish Limerick out of twenty rises killed six, hooked and lost five (line broken once and hook once), missed or pricked nine. The hooks ranged from 5/0 down to 6, according to water and weather. In consequence of this experience I continued to use Sproat hooks for several seasons, until I became a convert to double hooks in any sizes from 3/0 downwards. For single hooks above that size I do not think there is much to choose between good Limerick and Sproat. The question is often debated whether a salmon fly should be dressed on a single hook or a double one. Opinion is much and deeply divided on the subject; but, on the whole, it gravitates in favour of double hooks for small flies. Objectors allege that one hook is apt to act as a lever to prise out the other, but that is impossible if the point has gone home over the barb. The fact is that a percentage of fish will free themselves whether from single or double hooks, and one may feel it safer having two hooks in a heavy salmon than when the connexion depends on a single F 33 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD wire. Flies look much neater dressed on single hooks; but salmon are not trained as art critics; and personally I never hesitate in preferring double hooks in sizes from 8 up to 3/0 in the Limerick scale — that is, from fg in. up to 1^ in. long. Above that size there is no advantage to be had from double irons, and much inconvenience in casting. I have come to the further conclusion that the Fennel bend is better than the Limerick, taking a wider grip and penetrating more readily. There remains the question, Which is best — a metal eye on the hook or a gut loop lashed to it ? The advantage of a metal eye is that it will outlast any combination of feathers, fur and silk, whereas the gut loop is always the most perishable part of the fly. One boggles over burning old flies, yet how bitterly one has sometimes to repent that the sacrifice was not made in due time. During the spring of 1912 that lesson was well rubbed in for me. When fishing the Gordon Castle water on the Spey in February, I had brought two different fish under the gaff; on each occasion the salmon was floundering in the shallow water and the gillie was waiting till it was still to deliver his stroke; on each occasion the gut loop drew out of the dressing and two good spring salmon went free. Now these were large flies supplied by a firm second to none in the land for excellence of material; one of them, I admit, had been six or seven years in my box; but the other was a maiden Jock Scott, which I had only kept a couple of years. An experience such as this inclines one strongly to resort to metal eyes, and, on the whole, perhaps they are best, but it behoves one to be very careful in fashioning the knot that secures the fly to the casting -line. There is only one knot worthy of con- fidence for that purpose — ^the figure-of-eight, to which I have had occa- sion to refer so often that it is proper to give an enlarged plan thereof. It is shown in Fig. 3 as viewed from above, and its whole security depends upon the bight A resting above the loop of the fly, and not under it or out- side it at B, when the knot is drawn tight. The free end C may be snipped off pretty close after drawing it tight. Fishermen differ as to which is the best knot used for attaching the fly to the cast. I have no hesitation in pronouncing this figure-of-eight knot to be the only perfect — the only safe one. It has the subsidiary advantage of being very easily undone when the fly has to be detached from the cast. It is a little difficult to acquire the knack of making it with reason- able rapidity, but once the knack is acquired the angler will never resort to any other. 34 Fig. 1. PLATE VII. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. U) c Sproat Bend. c Fig. 4. Limerick Bend. Fig. 5. nTf^ ... ^^S^^!l!?^^~^s^-<, ,.H(mi4 t^ ^ 0 rwv . -r- ^ I ^^^^S&? ^^? T^ .... tiLtt THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT There remains to be noticed a very important part of the salmon-flsher'a equipment, namely, the mechanical aid in landing fish. The trout-fisher is happiest alone, unless he has to fish from a boat; but in salmon-fish- ing the assistance of a gillie greatly lightens the labour, were it in no other respect than carrying the fish when caught. Moreover, in some rivers the use of a gaff is prohibited during part, or even the whole, of the season. This renders necessary a landing-net or some other appliance too cum- brous for the angler himself to carry or wield. The cardinal principle in using the landing-net is to get the head of the fish in first. Scooping at the tail end of a salmon is a futile manoeuvre and risky withal, for it is in the terrified dash that follows that the hold of the hook is most likely to give way, whereas if the fish's head is en- meshed his final struggle will but serve to keep him in the net. Besides the net and the gaff, a landing -snare has been devised and is well spoken of by those who have used it in Norway and elsewhere. It consists of a wire noose, held in position by a pair of curved metal arms, passed from behind the salmon over its tail and drawn tight. A friend has reported to me that with this instrument he landed five consecutive fish averaging 30 lb. from the Sundals river, and nobody could ask for better service than that. I have never seen this instrument in use. In gaffing a fish the hook should be laid quietly over his back nearer the head than the tail, then drawn steadily and firmly home. Never allow your gillie to strike at a fish; if he does so, take the gaff from him, even at the risk of wounding his feelings, and apply it yourself. And never allow him to put the gaff below the fish, except when it has to be taken into a boat out of deep water. In such circumstances it is proper to gaff a salmon from below; but in landing a fish from the bank an upward stroke, if it misses its mark, is pretty sure not to miss the line. A trustworthy gillie is a mighty comfort, but he has not experienced the full delight of salmon-fishing who has not wandered out alone and killed his fish single-handed. I think I never had, and it is most improbable that I ever shall have again, such exciting pleasure in the space of three hours as fell to my lot on April 20, 1901. We had been fishing the river Minnick, my friend S and I, on the 19th; the water was in perfect trim; it was as certain as anything could be that fish must be in the river, for the nets had all been removed during that and the previous season, yet neither of us saw a sign of a fish during the six hours that we were by the waterside. It was a flat calm, with a hot and intensely bright sun in 35 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD a cloudless sky. " Norwegian weather," methought ; *' we must adopt Norwegian hours of angling "; and I proposed to S that we should go out next morning before the sun should rise above the brow of Lamar - kan. The idea did not commend itself to him, so next morning I left him abed and sallied out before 6 a.m. The conditions were not promising; the ground was white with hoar-frost, and my fingers were so cold I could hardly fasten a Black Ranger to the cast. Nevertheless, I had not made half-a-dozen casts in the Borgan Burnfoot, before the Ranger was fixed in a fish. Eight pounds, a lovely little model, fresh from the tide. Another of like weight and shape came to the gaff among the rocks of Rough Isle, and, thinking that I had well earned some hot coffee and eggs and bacon, I turned towards home. The way led past a rocky pool of most alluring aspect, the very place for a springer to rest, yet I had never fished it nor heard of anybody else doing so, by reason that it was well-nigh inaccessible. A precipice on the near bank left but a very nar- row margin between its foot and the river, that margin being thickly clothed with tall alders. Howbeit, I was glad to lay down the bag with the two fish, and to rest awhile, and while I rested the spirit moved me to get a fly over that water somehow. Clambering and slithering down the cliff, I poked the rod out between two alders and, casting being out of the question, allowed the current to take the line down as it was paid out. The stream was rough and rapid, chafing among rocks; nevertheless I caught sight of a dark, angular object showing for a moment in the vicinity of the fly. It was the back fin of a salmon, and I was fast in him. But how to deal with him ! I could not raise the rod for the branches overhead : I could but turn it up stream and allow the fish to run about as he pleased. Had he chosen to run up above me, the game was up, for that would make it impossible to keep the line taut. Well, he did not so choose; he disported himself in the most obliging fashion below me, where the stream broadened into the semblance of a pool. In fifteen minutes or so he showed signs of weariness, yet it was evident that I could not land him where I stood. The opposite bank was a waste of rocks; if I were only over there I could end the business pretty soon, but between me and these rocks was a rushing torrent of unknown depth. Help was out of the reckoning. It was Saturday and here, in the heart of the hUls, I might stay under shadow of that cliff till Monday without a soul passing that way, unless it occurred to S to send out a search party. At last I decided to risk the crossing. Luckily I had no waders 36 THE SALMON ANGLER'S OUTFIT on, or the risk would have been serious, as I knew nothing about the soundings. The water was intensely cold, but it proved to be only waist- deep; I reached the far side and soon had out the fish, a nice fellow of twelve pounds. Then I had to recross the stream to recover the other two fish, and returned to our farmhouse -lodging a heavy-laden, but well- satisfied, being. Be sure that full justice was done to the breakfast awaiting me. The sun was now high above Lamarkan, and not another fish was killed or moved that day. Now the moral of this long yarn is not the merit of early-rising (though it illustrates how groundless is the common belief that salmon will not do business until after the normal human breakfast hour), but the expe- diency of having a handy kind of gaff for solitary excursions. It is not well to extol the goods of certain makers, and I avoid doing so, as it might prove invidious to other makers of equal excellence. But I make an exception in the matter of a particular gaff which I obtained more than forty years ago from the late Mrs Hogg, a dear old lady who presided over a tackle shop in Princes Street, Edinburgh, when the world was (at least many of its present inhabitants were) younger and fresher than they are now. Messrs Farlow, to whom I gave the pattern after Mrs Hogg's death, have taken out a patent for it under the name of the Maxwell gaff; and whereas I can claim no merit for the article, I may confidently pro- nounce it to be, not only the best design in the market, but the only one thoroughly satisfactory in every respect that I have ever seen. Dear old Mrs Hogg ! I trust that the sometime Mr Hogg was worthy of you, and that, if you are now reunited to him, you are established in the best of quarters. When I was but a lad she, being already a widow, instructed me in the fascinating art of fly-tying. Her verdict at the end of the first lesson was encouraging. •• I think ye'U dae," quoth she. " There's yae thing I like aboot ye, ye've no got sweetie pawms."* " Oh, that's a good thing, is it ? " I observed. " Deed an' it is! " she replied. " My certie ! the feathers and the silk the lads spoils to me wi' their sweetie pawms." *Perf|nrin( hands. 37 SALMON FLIES By the RIGHT HON. SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART. IN the whole range of angling there is no subject upon which such irreconcilable difference of opinion prevails as upon the need for variety in salmon flies and the respective merits of different patterns. Although of late years I have met with an increasing number of anglers whom experience has brought to a similar opinion as my- self upon this matter, it is probable that we are still in a minority, and that the majority adhere to belief in the virtue of " changing the fly." The belief, which every successive season's experience has added confirmation in my own mind, is that it does not matter one hayseed what is the colour or material of the object called a salmon fly that one presents to the notice of a salmon, provided that it is not too large to excite suspicion, or too small to escape observation, and that it is given a lifelike motion. I was not always of that faith — or want of faith : far from it. I was entered to salmon fishing in the belief that colour and material were of primary importance; that it might be fatal to success if a fly with yellow silk body were used instead of one with black wool, as prescribed by the local authority, or vice versa. I used to comply so strictly with the pre- cept of changing a fly that had been missed or refused by a salmon, that I find it recorded in my fishing book how, when fishing a pool close to the sea in the River Luce on October 15, 1870, I raised a fish five times, changed the fly each time, and killed him on the sixth offer. It cannot now be proved, but I entertain no doubt that if I had presented the same fly each time, the result would have been identical. As experience grew with years, so my faith in the accepted doctrine waned, and I began to find it difficult to reconcile with reason the lists of special flies prescribed for each separate river in the United Kingdom. For instance, in the delightful "Book on Angling," by Francis Francis, hundreds of different patterns are arranged under the heading of the rivers for which they were held appropriate, if not essential; and, in addition, a list of seventeen ** general " flies was added which were recommended for use anywhere. Now I suppose there is no fly recognized at the pre- sent day as being more suitable for " general " use — ^in other words, none is more generally used — ^than "Jock Scott" and the "Wilkinson"; 38 SALMON FLIES yet In the sixth edition of the " Book on Angling " (1885), neither of these popular flies is recommended for general use; both are there described as special to the Tweed. Yet is "Jock Scott" no native of Tweedside; like Venus, he was born at sea, having been devised and tied by Jock Scott, fisherman to Lord John Scott, on a voyage to Norway in 1845. "Jock Scott" quickly established its reputation in Scandinavian waters, and afterwards became sine qua non on the Tweed, where, only a few years before its invention, brightly coloured flies were held in ab- horrence, as witnesseth the following passage from Stoddart's "Angler's Companion" (chapter xi): " I am only stating a well known fact when I affirm that, in the time I allude to, the salmon fishers on Tweedside not only held what is called the Irish fly* in absolute ridicule, but actually forbade the use of it on those portions of the river which they individually rented; and this they did, not because they deemed it too deadly for every- day use, but solely because they conceived it acted as a kind of bug- bear to the fish, scaring them from their accustomed haunts and resting places. . . . Was the bygone school of anglers a humbug ? Is the modern one less so ? . . . Seriously speaking, are the tastes and habits of salmon, as some assert, of a revolving nature ? Is the fish, too, so capricious that a single fibre wanting in the lure — a misplaced wing — a wrongly assorted hue — ^will discompose and annoy it ? " Stoddart goes on to tell of a certain Scottish laird who, like himself, was profoundly sceptical about the merits of variety in flies, never fished with any except those dressed with " snow-white dubbing and hackles, silver twist and portions of the pencilled wing feather taken from the silver pheasant . . . and although competed with by one of the ablest craftsmen in the district, whose notions regarding the visual perceptions of fish were perfectly different . . . managed generally to bear off the palm." Tom Todd Stoddart must be reckoned a powerful ally in defence of opinion upon any point connected with salmon fishing, for no man ever surrendered himself and sacrificed his material interests more com- pletely to the thrall of that sport. Born in 1810, and admitted in 1833 a member of the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, he spent his whole subsequent life, weather and season permitting, on the banks of rivers "Irish salmon-flles were made to combine all the hues of the rainbow at a time when none but treys and browns and blacks were displayed in English and Irish waters. 39 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD or the bosoms of lochs in every quarter of Scotland; so much so that when, in later years, his former fellow -student. Sheriff Glassford Bell, met him and asked—" What are you doing now, Tom ? "— " Doing ? " was the reply; " man, I'm an angler! " Be sure that if Tom had de- tected any superior attraction in one fly rather than another, he would have been the first to turn it to account; but he wrote scornfully of those who were in bondage to that form of superstition. If one considers the conditions under which a fly is presented to a salmon, one must surely suspend the reasoning faculty before it is pos- sible to entertain a belief in the fish's predilection for one of these simulacra rather than another. The conditions are these: 1. The salmon is not looking out for food in the river. Mr Abel Chap- man has stated that truth with convincing energy in his book on "Wild Norway." " Salmon ascend favourite streams in shoals; they are by nature rapacious and voracious; what is there in any river to satisfy hundreds of such appetites ? If they required to be so satisfied, a single week's ravages would clear out every living thing in the water. Every trout, smolt or eel, every duck, moorhen and water-rat would speedily be swept up; in a week, small boys would hardly be safe." Therefore, in seizing the fly the salmon takes it for some other purpose than to eat it. It yields to a predacious instinct, just as a terrier will run after, and seize, a ball thrown across the lawn, without any intention of devouring it. What course would a staid business man take if, when seated at his desk in the City, he perceived an unfamiliar creature careering about the ceiling of his office ? Would he not " rise," and either try to catch it himself or ring for one of his clerks to do so ? Whichever of them suc- ceeded— ^master or man — ^would use his hands, without the faintest in- tention of making a meal of the visitor. A salmon, having no hands, takes the fly with the only prehensile organ at its disposal — its mouth. 2. Assuming, for argument's sake, not only that salmon possess a nice sense of colour, but that they evince preference for one hue over another, it must be admitted that their normal position at the bottom of a river is the very worst to enable them to exercise discrimination. Every object passing over their heads must appear in dark relief against the bright background of the sky. The glitter of tinsel, the sheen of silk, the opaque brilliancy of kingfisher or macaw feathers, cannot be perceived by the 40 u o a IB sO o z a o z 1^ u o a u d o 6 2 -uis o O o o o 2 as AC 21 CQ o lily of , %. ■fnrc !t 1 Abel ' i* VtY4i aook :c«ltkM» '^ umAi n. 4f ^lA Gie; — A «^ 4 no haoils^ ^»«AM« ossposaj— Hits mt >«t aa^ -almon possess u oice V, i. » o^i^ hue ov«r an*""- " «-5T nnsltfnri -T ff# b«ittTni af ^■: ida aaua it • , * J b> the o 0 SALMON FLIES fish when these materials are presented to it between its eye and a strong light, unless that eye is endowed with powers denied to human organs of vision. The only coloured rays that can reach the retina of the fish are those transmitted through such substances as dyed wool and hackles. Delicacy of hue in an opaque substance like floss silk, which is so largely used in fly-dressing, can have no effect whatever upon the salmon's organ of sight. 3. What we call a salmon-fly is an arbitrary combination of silk, fur, feathers, etc., formed after the image of no real creature, and described as a " fly " because it corresponds in arrangement to a trout-fly, which may be a close imitation of a real insect. It requires but a slight exercise of imagination to understand whence the remarkable empyrical doctrine about the merits of various salmon- flies has arisen. We do not, indeed, know when or where fly-fishing for salmon was first practised in the British Isles. Izaak Walton, as aforesaid, knew nothing about it; but Izaak's contemporary and rival, Richard Franck, was an accomplished fly -fisher, and a far better natu- ralist than Izaak, at whom he girds for '' stuffing his indigested octavo with other men's notions," and laughs at his statement that pike were bred from pickerel weed. Richard, writing nearly three hundred years ago, was as firmly convinced of the need for humouring the salmon's sense of colour as is the most dogmatic Tweed boatman of the twentieth century. " Remember always to carry your dubbing-bag about with you, wherein there ought to be silk of all sorts, threads, thrums, moccado- ends and cruels of all sizes and variety of colours; diversified and stained wool, with dog's and bear's hair, besides twisted fine threads of gold and silver, with feathers from the capon, partridg, peacock, pheasant, mallard, smith, teal, snite, parrot, heronshaw, para- ketta, bittern, hobby, phlimingo or Indian flush; but the mockaw, without exception, gives flames of life to the hackle. . . . Should any man, under the pretence of an artist, remain destitute of these pre- noted qualifications — ^proclaim him a blockhead; let him angle for oisters! "* It is evident from this that considerable refinement had been intro- duced into the composition of salmon-flies by the middle of the seven- teenth century; but in all Richard Franck's entertaining treatise there 'Northern Memoirs, p. 178, edition of 1821. G 41 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD is no hint that he considers one fly better than any other for different rivers. He would have been sure to say so had it occurred to him, for, having served as one of Cromwell's Ironsides and fished many rivers in England, when the Protectorate was on the wane and the Monarchy about to be restored, he prudently crossed the Border, where he found a more congenial political atmosphere, and travelled north in a leisurely way, catching salmon in every likely river he crossed, from the Dum- friesshire Nith to the Brora of Sutherland and Naver of Caithness, and arguing fiercely upon controversial theology. By degrees it became generally known that salmon might be taken with larger flies than were in use for trout. Riverside folk, whose wallets were not stored with the varied material employed by Franck, were fain to use what stuff was ready to hand — ^feathers of poultry and native wild- fowl, dubbing from homespun cloth or an old bit of carpet; whence it came to pass that local patterns of flies established their reputation, differing in trifling details, but agreeing in their prevailing sober hues. Such, no doubt, was the origin of Tweedside " Toppy " and the old brown turkey wing with light coloured tips; both of which, expetio credite, are just as sure killers at the present time as when their praise was celebrated by William Scrope. Like many another old fisher, I have lived to see the fashion change on many rivers, where, in my youth, if a man were so daring an inno- vator as to depart from the routine alternative of grey mallard, brown turkey or grey goose wing, he was dubbed by the local experts " a fule body and an obstinate, wi' his head filled wi' queer whimsies aboot flees." Time has wrought a gentle, but emphatic, revenge; for it is now proved, in the preference shown for the gaudiest patterns by the present genera- tion of experts on these very rivers, that the " queer whimsies " existed only in the heads of those who imagined that success depended upon rigid adherence to established patterns. Instances could be cited without end to demonstrate the fallacy of attributing superior virtues to one fly over another according to the river in which it is used. One may suffice here, and it is a case peculiarly in point, because it resulted in the genesis of a certain queer fly, which has since won a reputation upon many rivers. Indeed, when I went to fish the Redbridge water on the Test some years ago, so firm was the belief in this fiy that the local prophet warned me against throwing away a chance by offering the fish any other. 42 SALMON FLIES The hero of this adventure and author of the fly in question was one Michael Maher, fisherman on the Longfield water of the Suir, who started from home one spring morning in 1874, leaving his fly-book behind and taking only the Devon minnow as bait, for he had heard that the water was thick. He found it, on the contrary, very clear and, seeing a very large fish rise near a certain big stone — a grand taking place — he deter- mined to avoid the risk of alarming him with a sunk bait, and to try a fly over him first. But never a fly he had on him — only a big hook or two for loach -fishing — ^and the day would be far spent before he could return home for his book and get back to the river. There was a farmhouse at hand, however, and therein a maiden with whom Michael was on terms of friendship. Repairing thither he begged a bit of silk and some feathers with which to tie a fly on the spot. •' For feathers, sure there's lashin's of them," replied the nymph, "for I'm afther plucking a poulthry this very morning; but for silk, Michael, you're afther coming to the wrong shop, for sorra a bit of it is there in the house." Now the fringe of pretty Phoebe's shawl was of pink worsted, and, in default of silk, she willingly allowed Michael to pull out a few strands of the same. Then she showed him where the spoils of the slaughtered cockerel were lying. •' Musha! but them's poor stuff," quoth Michael. *' Wasn't there an iligant yuUa feather in the hat ye wore at the chapel on Sunday ? And yuUa's the colour to fetch a salmon with the could weather we do be having." Phoebe was too good-natured to refuse the appeal; a pinch of yellow- dyed swan fibres would never be missed from the ample splendour of the Sunday hat. In half-an-hour Michael had rigged up such a fly as had never been displayed on the Suir or any other water — a pink worsted body, a yellow swan wing and a hackle from the deceased " poulthry '* wound under the same; and off he hurried to the river again. The big fish seized the strange fly at the first offer, and within half-an-hour Michael was on his way back to Gashel, carrying his noble quarry with him. It constituted a record in weight for rod-fishing on the Suir, famous as that river is for big fish, for it weighed just 57 lb. Of course the first question asked by everybody who came to view the great fish was — *' What fly did you get him with, Michael ? " and to every one the answer was the same — •* Ah, that's a mysthery." 43 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD When at last the secret did come out, " the Mystery," with suitable refinement of material and garnishing, was received with enthusiasm on many a river side, and was found to do quite as well as any other fly — and no better. Viewed in the cold light of reason, such an incident as this ought surely to enable one to declare that it matters not one spin of a farthing whether the prevailing hue of a fly be red or blue, yellow or black, or an equal combination of many hues; and the only important consideration is that the lure be of suitable size and be given life-like motion. Well, that is the conclusion to which I have been driven, malgr6 moi ; but such is the weakness of the human intelligence that I have found it beyond my strength to act upon it. There is such a mute fascination in daintily dressed salmon-flies, their outline is so graceful, their tints so delicately blended or so cunningly contrasted, that no nature sensible of beauty can contemplate them with indifference. Consequently, I suppose I spend as much time as anybody else at the outset of a day's fishing in hesitating between the modest lustre of a " Silver Grey," the sombre dignity of a "Black Dog," and the freakish gaiety of a "Popham," deaf the while to the monition of intelligence that the result must be exactly the same whichever is chosen. Truly it hath been said that salmon-flies are designed rather for the delectation of fishers than for the deception of fishes. That being so, no treatise on salmon fishing would be received with favour that did not contain a description of a few, at least, out of the be- wildering variety of patterns from which the angler has to make his choice. Yet in doing so I shall endeavour to support the doctrine of indifference by giving the figures of a few flies most in favour in the middle of last century, to compare with those that bear the highest reputation as killers in the present day. Probably few people would care to be identified with the doctrine that salmon have changed their taste during the last hundred years. No animal is of more conservative habits than salmon; with few exceptions they return each to the river in which it first saw light; arriving there, they take up the identical resting places that have satisfied creatures of their race from immemorial time; and there they perform the self- same aerial antics which had earned for it, before Pliny's day, the appropriate title of salmo, the leaper, a saliendo. Nothing is more im- probable than that a predacious fish should acquire a predilection for 44 SALMON FLIES certain colours and combinations which had no attraction for former generations of his kind. Such a proposition has only to be expressed in words to manifest its absurdity. What, then, is the source of the total change in the fashion of salmon -flies during the last half -century ? Why does the modern Tweed fisherman turn with indifference from ** Meg- in-her-braws " which, when Scrope wrote in the early 'forties, was con- sidered gaudy as compared with other Tweed flies, and prescribe such brilliant confections as the " Durham Ranger " and the " Wilkinson " ? It arises solely from a notion that what tickles the human fancy must be attractive to that of a salmon. Being a perfectly harmless illusion, unless it is indulged to such an extent as to interfere with the fisher keeping some fly constantly in the water, he must needs be a philosopher of a very austere school that would condemn or discourage it. Salmon- flies are very pretty things, of which a moderate variety will contribute not a little to the angler's enjoyment. Accordingly in Plates VIII and IX are shown a few typical patterns. It may serve to explain, if not to justify, the impartiality with which I regard any one of these patterns, and the perfect indifference which I should feel as to which of them I should choose to exhibit on any river where salmon were to be caught, if I give the following illustration. As a young fellow, I used to fish a good deal in the North Tyne from Reedsmouth down to Countess Park. Not having been there since the year 1874, I lately asked a friend who is in the habit of fishing it, what flies were in vogue on that water now. " Well," said he, "I don't think it matters what fly one uses, so long as it is not a 'Blue Doctor.' I never can do any good at all with that." I turned up my old flshing journal and showed him where a "Blue Doctor," tied by a railway porter at Reedsmouth Station, was preserved, with the record that it had landed six salmon in the Reedsmouth water. But if colour and material are of little moment in a salmon -fly, great is the importance of size. The fly must be large enough to attract the notice of the salmon, and not large enough to scare him. In judging of this, season, temperature and height of water must be the governing factors; and how great is the range of scale may be seen in Plate IX, wherein are represented the largest and the smallest flies which I have known to kill salmon. With the large one (No. 6) I killed a spring salmon of 15 lb. in Deeble Pool on Helmsdale, February 14, 1899; with the small one (No. 7), a "Professor," Sir Hugh Shaw Stewart killed two salmon, 7 lb. and 6 lb., in the Cree in July, 1905. 45 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD He who aspires to " busk his ain flees," which is good Scots for " tie his own flies," will never learn the trick by reading written instructions; whereas three or four lessons from an expert will suffice to ground him in the principles, by practising which he will soon attain proficiency. I shall not attempt more, therefore, than to indicate the general struc- ture of a salmon-fly, naming the different parts of which it is usually com- posed, so that the reader may follow the recipes given for constructing a few representative patterns. The patterns themselves are innumerable; has not Mr Hardy, of Alnwick, been at the pains to give a list of 345 different salmon-flies in his book on " Salmon Fishing " ? Many of them are slightly varied according to the fancy of different dressers; but anglers are far more apt to encumber themselves with too many patterns than to find themselves at a loss from having too few. In Figure 6 are shown the different parts of a salmon-fly, whereby the beginner may follow the directions for dressing the following dozen patterns. When he has accomplished that, he may give rein to his fancy and indulge in any amount of variety. 1. "The Gordon." Tag^ silver wire and lemon floss; tail, golden pheasant topping with fibres of tippet; butt, bronze chenille; body, one -third golden floss, remainder crimson floss, ribbed with broad silver tinsel and silver twist; crimson hackle over crimson floss, sky-blue hackle at shoulder; wing, two short tippet feathers, two crimson cock's hackles, a few fibres of crimson, blue and yellow-dyed swan, bustard and peacock herl, jungle -fowl at cheek, topping over all. In tying this or any other salmon-fly, tackle -makers often make the mistake of putting too much feather in the wing. It is far better to fish with a fly rather bare and thin than with one overdressed. "The Gordon" originally came from Deeside; but if I were limited to the use of one pat- tern in any river, this is the one I should choose, for it is the only fly for which, when harling in the Tay with three rods astern, each with a dif- ferent fly, I have fancied that salmon show a preference. It is an excellent fly on any size of hook and in all fishable conditions of water or weather. 2. " The Bulldog." Tag, gold tinsel and ruby floss; tail, a topping and blue chatterer feather; butt, black chenille; body, lower half, flat silver twist with red Indian crow feathers tied in above it in " Jock Scott " fashion, with a turn of black chenille over the tying; upper half, French blue floss with flat silver twist and blue hackle 46 SALMON FLIES over; pintail or teal hackle at shoulder; wing, strips of yellow and black-dyed swan, pintail or farmyard drake over and two jungle- fowl hackles, blue chatterer at cheek; topping over all. A native of the Cumberland Eden, named, it may be imagined, from its faculty of taking hold and keeping it. I give the "Bulldog" a place in this select gallery (where there is no room for '• Jock Scott " and other far-famed killers), because it was with this fly that I killed my first salmon in Norway. Arriving at the lodge at 5 p.m. on Saturday night, there was only an hour to run before the Norwegian Sunday begins, on which day angling is suspended, and rightly so. My hostess had just returned from fishing the pool close to the house, where she had failed to move any- thing. " Will you have a cup of tea," she asked, ** or would you like to have a cast before Sunday begins ? " No need to quote my reply; in feverish haste I put my gear together; a large " Bulldog " happened to be the fly that came first to hand, and down I scuttled to the pool which had yielded nothing to three hours' flogging. It is a wide, streamy pool; to reach the lie of the fish a boat is necessary, so I embarked at once and had not made many casts before I fancied I saw a fin show above the broken water near the fly. I could not be sure; but all doubt was set at rest at the next cast, for I was fast in a fish. The behaviour of that salmon was a bit of a revelation to me, for there is no manner of doubt that these northern fish, aided by a swift and powerful water, fight harder and run more strongly than those in our small rivers at home. He left the pool, and it was well into Sunday before I was able to extract the "Bulldog" from his massive maw — a clean-run fish of 21 lb. 3. " The Black Dog " (Tay pattern). Tag, silver twist and golden floss; tail, topping and sprigs of scarlet ibis; butt, black chenille; body, black floss, ribbed with ruby floss between broad silver tinsel on one side and gold twist on the other; black cock's hackle over the whole length of the body, at the shoulder a long-fibred black heron's hackle, with a guinea-fowl over; wing, strips of dark brown turkey, red and yellow dyed swan, claret cock's hackle, purple peacock's herl; a slice of wood-duck and a jungle-fowl hackle on each shoulder. Large topping over all. There are many variations in the dressings of this fly, yellow floss being substituted sometimes for ruby in the body, but the general effect should be sombre. It is used in large sizes, and I have particular cause to fancy it for a flooded river in spring. For instance, in February, 1911, 47 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD I was staying with two friends at that excellent hostelry the Gordon Arms, Fochabers, waiting for a five -foot spate to subside, and waiting in vain from Monday till midday on Saturday. Then, although the water still stood at 46 on the " pinny," and was a bad colour besides, we decided to wet our lines after luncheon, though with a very faint hope of doing so to any purpose. My lot was cast for beloved Alltdearg, but that grand pool was a tossing sea, so I went beyond to the Otter's Cave, a cast which nowadays is of no use except in a very high water. Certainly it bore no semblance to a salmon pool; it was a broad swift race of " drumly " water, and I flung the "Black Dog " upon its expanse with no expectation of raising a fish. It was now half -past two; at 5 o'clock it was dark; yet in that brief space of time I had the extraordinary luck to land four clean salmon weighing 25, 9, 7 and 71b. respectively. As usual, under similar condi- tions of flood, these fish were all lying very near the bank. It was not the first lesson I had learnt about the merit of setting adverse circumstances at defiance, but it was the most surprising, because muddy water is believed, and generally proves, to be prohibitive to fly-fishing. 4. "The Green Highlander." Tag, silver wire and gold floss; tail, a topping and sprigs of teal; butt, black chenille; body, one- fourth yellow pig's wool, remainder myrtle green pig's wool with green hackle over, ribbed with silver tinsel; shoulder hackle blue- dyed gallina; wing, strips of mottled brown turkey, bustard, red, yellow and blue-dyed swan, jungle-fowl at cheeks, topping over, blue macaw wings. This is a prime favourite on the Brora; indeed, on the only day when I have fished that wonderful little river, my gillie v/ould not allow me to exhibit any other fly. I killed eight fish on it, fighting against one of the heaviest gales it has ever been my lot to encounter in the month of April. 5. " The Red Ranger." Tag, silver wire and sky-blue or yellow floss; tail, a topping with sprigs of ibis and teal; butt, black chenille; body, scarlet mohair, ribbed with broad silver tinsel and silver twist; sky-blue hackle at shoulder; wing, two long jungle -fowls, doubled tippet feathers over them, blue chatterer cheeks, topping over all, blue macaw horns. This fly is a variant of the better-known "Durham Ranger," which, I have read somewhere, had its origin in two gentlemen from Durham going into a tackle -maker's shop on Tweedside (whether Forrest of Kelso or Wright of Sprouston I quite forget), and demanding a fly that would 48 X H < (A Q a a •c 3 H a 3 Q o o Z 2 g i-i o & d Z (310 o Q u PQ d Z a «^ u a o (A Ph 3 bO o Z o Z d Z c 3 \ "YttSSK J -J .« O y, one- II > ■ I. ;sr''-#r. and F o long juti^l ac that V. SALMON FLIES be sure to kill. The artist undertook to do so, and next morning handed him a brand-new pattern, which proved so successful in the hands of these fishers that it was dubbed the "Durham Ranger," and has long held a place in the standard list. I cannot say that it is a favourite with me, though I have killed several fish with it in spring, especially with the variety *' Black Ranger," which has a jet black body. The characteristic Ranger wing sits too stiffly to please my fancy; but I have honoured the " Red Ranger " with a portrait, because it is reputed to be the surest killer on the Sundal Elv, a fine river that flows into the fjord upon which Ghristiansund is situated. The late Lord Leicester used to fish the Sundal many years ago, and is commemorated in the name given to a certain cast thereon. He lost his pipe there one day: nothing strange in that, for the whole pass is filled at that place with a wild jumble of enormous boulders fallen from the mountain above. What was remarkable was that he found the said pipe some days later, whence the cast has been called Piba Pool ever since. Something similar that happened to myself on this river seems to show that the nymph of Sundal is indulgent to careless folk. One evening about 10 o'clock I hooked a fish (on a " Red Ranger," of course) in Lethen. It set off down stream at a great pace, clean out of the pool, so that I had to leave the boat and race after it. It so happened that I had landed on an island, where I managed to kill my fish, 25| lb. It was now getting as near dark as it can get in a Norwegian June, so I made tracks for home, carelessly leaving a favourite knife on the shingle. During the night, the river rose considerably, so that when I returned to look for my pro- perty next day, the island was nearly all under water. Two or three days later, the river having subsided, I recovered the knife, none the worse for its immersion. Fishing the Sundal Elv has impressed itself on my memory owing to the daring of its boatmen. Every river in Norway, at least every one that I have fished, has its peculiar build of boat. I came to Sundal straight from fishing the Rauma. Now in Romsdal the boats are built on very pretty lines, the prow saucily cocked and the sides gracefully moulded. The boatmen are very careful, taking no risks in rapids, nor hanging in peril- ous proximity over a roaring foss. One may fish a whole season in the Rauma and never once have his heart in his mouth or ship a pint of water. Very different are both boats and boatmen on the Sundal. The boats are like crazy packing cases with the lid gone; any lines they possess suggest H 49 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD a Thames punt cut across the middle; yet in these frail craft you are navi- gated among boulders, to touch one of which would mean a capsize into a foaming torrent, and down rapids with the waves leaping high above the gunwale. And this without rowlocks: only a frail withy looping each oar to a single wooden pin. Verily it makes one catch his breath to gaze upon the rapid below the Storr pool and reflect that, during my visit, Mr Biert was taken through it by a fish, and was still afloat when he reached the smooth water. The flsh weighed 37 J lb. Ah ! those days of yore in Norway, what bright gleams they reflect from the past, and how hard it is to put a check upon yarning about them. The people are so charming — ^like Lowland Scots plus good manners — and so rigidly honest withal that one is absolved from the obligation to check bills rendered; just as well, perhaps, else there might be some difficulty in identifying familiar articles of male attire in a week's account for washing described as follows on a scrap of paper two inches square: 4 pr stroinper 28 2 Manskjetsjorter 56 lUldsjorte 20 IBukse 20 3 Snipper 21 3 Slips 21 10 Lomtorkleder 70 Kr 2.36 It is a silly thing to make fun at a foreign language; but it is permissible to smile when foreigners make use of our speech to advertise the attrac- tions of their country. I may give Herr Didrik Maan a gratuitous adver- tisement by reprinting his announcement from a Norwegian paper: LOOK HER ! SALMON I The honourable travellers are averted to, that undersigned, who lives in Fjorde pr. Vol- den Romsdals county, Norway, short or long time, hires out a good Salmonriver. Good lodging finds. Didrik Maan shopkeeper. 50 SALMON FLIES 6. "The Blue, Black and Silver Doctors.'* Tag, silver wire and yellow floss; tail, a topping and Indian crow; butt, scarlet wool worsted; body, sky-blue floss, ribbed with silver twist and a sky- blue hackle; wing, gold pheasant tail feather, grey turkey, pintail, with fibres of yellow and red swan, topping over all; head, scarlet worsted. The "Black" and "Silver Doctors" are similar in all respects, save that the flrst has a black floss body and black hackle, and the body of the second is of silver tinsel, with no hackle, save a sky-blue one at the shoulder. 7. " The Wilkinson " resembles the " Silver Doctor " in all re- spects save that it has no hackle over the body, no red worsted on its head, but it is indemnified for the loss of these by a flaming magenta shoulder hackle and a pair of blue chatterers on the cheeks. No fly, except "Jock Scott," has acquired such a reputation on Tweed- side as the " Wilkinson," and indeed it kills quite as well as any other, there or elsewhere; but I got so tired of hearing it extolled at the expense of equally meritorious compositions, that I devised one to compete with it, which was afterwards called by my name. 8. " The Sir Herbert." Tag, gold tinsel; tail, a topping and sprigs of ibis; no butt; body, gold tinsel carried on from the tag for two- thirds of the length; gold twist over and a yellow -dyed cock's hackle with a black list down the centre; remaining third scarlet mohair with magenta shoulder hackle; wing, two tippet feathers, strips of bustard, white and scarlet swan and wood-duck, and a few fibres of emerald peacock herl. Blue chatterer cheeks and red macaw horns; head, bronze chenille. The Tweed boatman's face to whom I showed this fly was a study In physiognomy. Amusement and disdain flitted across it, changing to contempt and emphatic remonstrance when, on an October morning, I proceeded to attach it to the line. In the evening, having landed seven salmon weighing 122 lb. in the Haly Weil at Bemersyde with the strange fly,* when I ventured to observe that the gold body had not done so badly, all my friend could find to say was, dryly — " Maybe ye'd have done better wi' a Wulkisson." Which was a surmise incapable of disproof. As for the fly itself, it has proved itself just as effective as any other in British and Norwegian waters; but the yellow body hackle merely serves to add *Oii November 2, 1892. The weights were 22, 22, 20, 18, 16, 16, 8 lb. it FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD brilliancy to the fly -book, for it invariably gets cut by the first fish that takes it. In large spring sizes a couple of jungle -fowl feathers, shorter than the tippets, improve the wing. 9. "The Argus." Tag, silver wire; tail, sprigs of mottled argus pheasant; butt, scarlet chenille; body, black floss, ribbed with silver twist and black cock's hackle; gallina at shoulder; wing, two slices of grey turkey, over which two slices of the mottled buff and black feather of the argus pheasant. A turn of fluffy white argus tied hackle - wise over the wing. Black varnished head. This is a most serviceable fly in all sizes, being composed of very dur- able material. I have found it very attractive to salmon both in Norway and Scotland. 10. " The Snow Fly." Tag, silver wire and yellow floss; tail, a topping and a couple of Indian crows; body, in three joints, all of flat silver twist; at the top of the first joint is wound a crimson hackle, at the top of the second a sky-blue one, and at the shoulder a gallina or guinea-fowl hackle; wing, mixed slices of grey turkey, gold pheasant tail, fibres of red and blue swan, shortish jungle-fowl on cheeks, and a topping over all. There are many varieties of " Snow Fly " — that of the Beauly has a wing entirely composed of bronze peacock herl and an orange ruff. I have chosen to describe this one, because I happened to have it on my line during the best day's spring fishing that ever fell to my lot, when it accounted for ten out of eleven clean fish in the bag.* 11. "The Lady Caroline." No tag or tail; body, a mixture of crimson and blue wool, giving the effect of purple, the fibres not pulled out, ribbed with narrow silver and gold tinsel, a long-fibred red heron's hackle from tail to head, wound the reverse way to the tinsel, and a teal hackle at throat; wing, brown mallard. Evidently a very ancient type, such as Richard Franck may have seen when he perambulated the Highlands in the later days of the Protec- torate, " The Lady Caroline," though named after a lady still with us, is one of a large variety of flies peculiar to Strathspey, where the local fishermen adhere conservatively to the patterns in vogue long before such frivolities as jungle -fowl, gold pheasant and dyed plumes came into vogue. It is a very good fly in any river, especially for clear water. 12. "The Dun Turkey." Tag, yellow floss and silver wire; /ai7, *See pa^e 71, infra. 52 SALMON FLIES a topping and Indian crow; butt, bronze chenille; body, yellow, orange, claret and black mohair in equal parts, picked out and ribbed with flat gold twist; a claret hackle over the claret and black wool; sky-blue hackle at shoulder; wing, two slips of dun turkey with light tips. This is another venerable pattern handed down from generation to generation, and reputed indispensable in my youth. Substitute brown mallard for dun turkey in the wing and vary the body by composing it of all black or all brown mohair, with hackle of a corresponding shade over it, and you have a series of flies without which success was formerly deemed unattainable in the rivers of Galloway. So, at least, the local experts averred, although at the present day Galloway salmon are found to rise as readily to the gaudiest flies. 13. " Meg-in-her-Braws." Tail, yellow wool; body, three turns of crimson wool, the same of green wool, remainder brown wool mixed with bullock's hair, ribbed with gold twist with a cock-y-bondhu hackle, blue jay at shoulder; wing, two slices of bittern's wing; head, yellow wool. This is one of Scrope's patterns, and I give it because of its archaeo- logical interest, to show what was considered a gay fly on Tweedside eighty years ago. Also it is interesting ornithologically, for Scrope would not have recommended the feather of a bittern unless that fine bird, now of rarest occurrence, had not been pretty easy to obtain. The dresser of the specimen shown in Plate VIII has been compelled to substitute the rich mottled feather on a peacock's back, nor is it likely that any salmon will refuse this fly on account of the change. 14. "The Dusty Miller." Tag, silver wire and olive floss; tail, a top- ping and Indian crow; butt, black chenille; body, two-thirds em- bossed silver tinsel, one -third gold floss, ribbed with flat silver twist, orange -dyed hackle over the floss and gallina at shoulder; wing, two slices of black turkey with white tip, fibres of bustard, argus pheasant and red, yellow and blue-dyed swan over; two jungle-fowl feathers half the length of the wing, and two toppings tied in over all with the curve of the feather directed outward and upward, in- stead of being set as usual to curve downwards. The "Dusty Miller " has undergone a change of raiment since I made his acquaintance. The gold floss and orange hackle on the body are a modern innovation, and alter the grey, " dusty " appearance he used 53 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD to present. However, he remains as good a killer as of old, and is reckoned specially so on the Tay when water and weather have warmed with ad- vancing spring. Dressers are apt in this, as in many other flies, to put too many feathers in the wing. Should it be desired to lighten it before use, do not pull out the superfluous feathers, which is apt to loosen the whole tying, but snip them off neatly with curved scissors. 15. "The Poynder." Tag, silver twist and sky-blue floss; tail, a top- ping and blue chatterer; body, one -fourth each of gold floss, orange, sky-blue and claret mohair picked out, ribbed with flat silver twist and a claret hackle over the mohair; gallina hackle at shoulder; wing, 2l couple of short tippets, over which a mixture of gold pheasant^s tail, bright bustard, red, yellow and blue -dyed swan and slips of wood-duck; jungle-fowl at cheeks and the inevitable topping over all; blue macaw horns. A good old fly the "Poynder," which was considered a very gaudy affair when it was first promulgated, but has long been eclipsed in brilliancy by others which are more expensive, but no whit more effective. 16. "Jock Scott." Tag, silver wire and golden floss; tail, a topping and Indian crow; body, lower half golden floss ribbed with flat silver twist, over which are tied in some of the rich yellow or orange feathers from the throat of the toucan. Over the butts of these is laid a turn of black chenille. The rest of the body is black floss, ribbed with flat silver twist or tinsel, with a black cock's hackle beside it; gallina at shoulder. In forming the wing one is very apt to make it too heavy, owing to the absurd variety of feathers prescribed. These are, first, two slices of bronze turkey with clear white tips; then fibres of bus- tard, pintail, mallard, scarlet, blue and yellow-dyed swan and green peacock herl. Jungle -cock on each side, half the length of the wing, blue chatterer at cheeks and topping over all; head, black chenille. I should have incurred the penalties attached to heresy had I omitted Jock from any list of salmon-flies, however severely limited, so I have put him in in order to avoid giving offence to his many devotees. For my own part, I usually fish with anything rather than " Jock Scott," not from prejudice, for I have slain many salmon with him; but because, if salmon have any discrimination in the matter of flies (which I doubt), it is surely better to present to their notice something with which they are not so familiar. When I do fish with this fly I generally have to clip out some of the wing feathers, for it is nearly always too heavily dressed. 54 SALMON FLIES ♦•Jock Scott" has had a numerous offspring — ^"Red Jock," "Blue Jock," ♦• Silver Jock " — besides giving the cue to such flies as the ** Bull- dog," the " Baron," etc. Before leaving the subject of salmon-flies, I will venture to quote, in defence of my scepticism about the importance of colour and material, some extracts from a letter I published in the " Field " newspaper on June 19, 1897, describing certain experiments upon the colour-sense of fish: '* A few years ago, while commenting in a magazine article on the extravagant importance attached by many salmon-fishers to the exact colours displayed in artificial flies, I ventured to express some doubt whether fish in general, and salmon in particular, were able to distinguish difference in the colour of objects presented to their view, especially when these objects came between their lidless, brow- less eyes and the light. While admitting, what no one can doubt, the intense keenness of their vision and the readiness with which they can distinguish variations in tone from light to dark, I suggested that it was wholly an assumption that fish have the faculty of dis- tinguishing one colour from another of a corresponding shade — say red from green or blue from brown. . . . [After discussing the futility of a priori theories about the preference felt by salmon for certain colours in certain rivers, I made the following proposition:] ♦' Let some floating mayflies be dyed of a bright scarlet (they will reflect about the same amount of light as the ordinary yellowish - grey imitations) and let some devoted searcher for truth use one in a southern stream what time the mayfly is on, and the big trout are sucking down the floating insects by scores. If it were found that the highly educated, nervous trout of an English chalk-stream showed themselves as ready to accept scarlet, pink, sky-blue or yellow imita- tions as the ordinary grey or green drakes, one might surely argue thence that fish have no discriminating sense of colour, and the whole theory and practice of fly-fishing would be subverted. . . . " During the present season (1897) I have been fishing in Hertford- shire. ... I had some mayflies dressed (entirely) with scarlet, and others with bright blue, both being shaded on the darker parts of bodies and wings. There was some difficulty in getting the dressers to understand that it was important that the shade of these flies should not be uniform; that there should be dark patches at the head and 55 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD shoulders and dark markings on the wings; in short, that a red mayfly, when photographed, should appear exactly like a grey one. At last, however, a satisfactory result was obtained. " On June 3, after the mayfly had been on about a fortnight, I went to fish the Gade at Cassiobury. ... I found the mayfly abundant, and the trout, which are exceedingly numerous,* taking them freely. I had no desire that the keeper should suspect me at once of being a lunatic, so I mounted a fly of the ordinary pattern, with which I landed a brace of trout. Then I broached the subject of the dangerous flies, and told my guide that I wished to try some experiments. There was a good, light -coloured trout lying above the bridge in the park in a convenient position. He was near the surface, though I did not see him actually take the natural fly. With considerable trepidation I attached a scarlet mayfly to my cast and offered it to the fish. The sun was shining brightly, and the lure made a hideous display on the water, like a floating fuchsia blossom, and I confess I was sur- prised when the trout, instead of darting away at its approach, rose, quietly sucked it in, and was landed. " So much for a first experiment; but I was not quite satisfied, because I had not observed this trout taking the natural mayfly; so I went down to a bend in the river where three trout were rising. The first of these took the red mayfly greedily and weighed IJ lb. I changed to a bright blue mayfly, to which the second trout suc- cumbed, and so did the third, each of them weighing 1^ lb. Several others followed on the blue, as well as a brace of chub, till, at a place peculiarly favourable for watching the movements of fish, I mounted the red again. It was the hottest time of day, and at first I thought the trout had found me out. One fish came up two or three times, and turned from the red fly; I took it off and tried him with a grey one, which he took. This certainly looked as if the trout perceived a difference between cherry colour and ash colour; but a little later almost the converse happened. A trout came up, inspected and refused the grey fly, and afterwards took a blue one. The prettiest fish in the bag, a lovely two-pounder, fell to the blue fly after swallow- ■ ing several of the natural. '* To make a long story as short as is consistent with precision, I *I am informed that this is no longer the case, and that there is woful diminution in the stock of trout owing to pike having been allowed to increase and the channel to silt up with mud. 56 SALMON FLIES landed during that afternoon thirty -one trout, of which only one weighed less than a pound. Four or five were hooked on the grey fly, all the rest on reds and blues. My limit being four brace, I exceeded it accidentally by one, and kept nine trout weighing 13^ lb. I might have landed many more had I worked harder and continued longer. . . . •' Two days later, on Saturday, June 5, I enjoyed an even better opportunity of testing the abnormally coloured flies, in the presence of three independent witnesses. This was on the Beane, near Hert- ford, where fish are not nearly so plentiful as in the Gade, and far more wary. The day was intensely hot and bright. Unluckily I had used up, or given away, all my cherry -coloured mayflies,* and I had only one very bright blue one left. The fish began to rise about 2.30 p.m., and I had landed two brace, weighing 7^ lb., with the ordinary mayfly before 4.30. 1 mention particulars of size in order to show that these trout had arrived at years of discretion. I tried a good fish with the grey fly, which he refused. I then went up to a friend's house for a cup of tea. Returning at 5.30, I found this fish still rising, and mounted my solitary blue fiy, though I considered it too large for the intensely bright sunshine. He took it immediately, and was landed — 2^ lb. Not far from the same place another fish had taken up his position; on being offered the blue fly he seized it the first time over — 2^ lb. Three persons — Mr Abel Smith, M.P., the Hon. Mrs Smith and Mr Anstruther — saw the fly taken out of the mouths of these fish, and I warned them that I might have to sub- poena them as witnesses. " The next act in the drama did not end so propitiously. ... A large fish was rising in a pool at the foot of an alder. I got the blue fly nicely over him, and he took the first opportunity of hooking himself. Throwing himself out of the water, he showed well over 3 lb.; but, dashing suddenly into a dense bed of weeds, he struggled so violently that, in spite of all care, he smashed the gut and carried off the last of my heretical fiies. I stopped after landing two other fish — 3 and 1^ lb. — on a grey fly, making a total of eight trout weighing 16| lb., besides a few others returned under size. . . . " Now I am as far as possible from desiring to bolster up an a priori theory about the colour-blindness of fish. ... It may be asked. Why was the experiment tried only in the mayfly season, when 'They had become known as "Bloody Marys." I 57 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD trout lose their senses ? To this I reply that my original statement had no special reference to trout, but it had special reference to salmon. But whereas salmon are vagrant, uncertain creatures, here to-day and gone to-morrow, it is impossible to experiment upon them with the precision which can be applied to trout in a clear English stream, where every movement can be watched. . . . " Next it may be asked. What is the general impression left on my mind by these experiments so far as they have gone ? What light have they thrown on the problem of the perception of colour by fish ? The fair inference seems to be this alternative— either fish do not perceive the difference between the coloured rays reflected from, or transmitted through, objects; or, if they perceive it, they disregard it. . . . If this conclusion be just with respect to trout — the wariest fish that swims — ^what important bearing it has on the whole theory and practice of salmon-fishing with fly ! What a vast degree of in- genuity is exhausted in devising attractive patterns of salmon-flies! and what a lot of perplexity and hesitation the angler undergoes at times when salmon are not in a taking mood ! . . . A trout gazes earnestly and critically at what is shown to it ;* if the most unnatural and brilliant colours do not deter him from attack, how much less likely it is that a salmon should refuse a lure because it does not correspond precisely in hue with some imaginary creature which it is supposed to represent. " Some salmon-flies doubtless are more conspicuous in the water than others. Those with strong contrasts of shade, such as "Jock Scott," "White Wing," or "Durham Ranger," may be more easily detected, even by a colour-blind creature, than those of a uniform tone like the "Blue Doctor" or the "Kelly." ... I have long thought it possible, and begin to believe it probable, that, even supposing a fish is placed in the best possible position for detecting variety of colour in a fly, instead of in the worst, as he must be in nine cases out of ten, all the impression he receives is the chiaro-oscuro of a vivid photograph." Since the report whence these extracts have been made was published, I have been the subject of a good deal of severe criticism, and even of 'This applies only to trout taking a floating fly in a gently-flowing, clear stream. The behaviour of the same trout seizing a sunk fly is very different, being a dash and a plunge. But the sunk fly moves as no natural fly can do ; the trout pursues it as he would a swiftly-swimming water insect. 58 SALMON FLIES some ridicule, on account of so heretical a doctrine. It is with some satisfaction, therefore, that I have received, while these pages are going through the press, corroboration of my waterside observations from the results of physiological research. Professor G. Hess, of Wttrzburg, has communicated to ♦• Medicinische Klinik " (November 15, 1912) the result of a long series of experiments which he has devoted to testing the colour sense in different classes and orders of animals. This is no place to follow his process of experiment in detail; briefly, the conclusion to which he has come is (1) that mammals perceive light and colour in the same degree as man does ; that part of the spectrum whereof the normal human eye is sensitive being visible to beasts. (2) Birds in general and reptiles he has found only sensitive to the colours towards the red end of the spectrum; blue and violet they cannot distinguish. (3) Fishes, according to Professor Hess, are quite insensible to difference of colour, perceiving objects "in exactly the same manner as a totally colour-blind man"; that is, variety of colour affect their optic nerves as different values of light intensity. Professor Hess, therefore, has arrived by a different and surer road at the first of the alternative hypotheses which I, greatly daring, ventured to submit to anglers, viz., that fish are either colour-blind, or, possessing the colour-sense, are indifferent to it as a guide in feeding.* Though I adhere to my incredulity about the importance of any par- ticular variety of fly to be presented to the notice of a salmon, I have by no means overlooked the result of Dr Francis Ward's ingenious and in- teresting observations from his subaqueous chamber as described in the ** Field " of May 4, 1912. His paper is illustrated with a number of photo- graphs showing different salmon-flies from the salmon's point of view —or nearly so, and he discusses learnedly the phenomena of refraction, reflection and other agencies affecting subaqueous objects. Really, if a man were to carry all these points in his head when he went a -fishing, he never would get to work at all. Luckily for us all, Dr Ward has asked a bed-rock question, and answered it in a way that enables us to dismiss the result of his experiment as irrelevant to success, though not to science. "What," asks Dr Ward, "is the appearance of a salmon-fly while it is being fished ? " The answer he makes is founded upon what he saw when Mr Sheringham worked a series of salmon-flies over him who was ensconced in his subaqueous chamber with plate-glass sides, and that answer is — " Never the same for two seconds." * A summary of Professor Hess's experiments and conclusions was given in The Field for February 12, 1913. 59 1 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD Some idea may be gained of the perplexity in which one would be in- volved who determined to angle in strict conformity with the lesson Dr Ward derived from his experiment, by studying a paper contributed by Mr Sheringham to the same number of the "Field," in which he states the conclusions to which he has been led by taking part in these experi- ments. His paper is headed " Some Practical Considerations," a title wherein possibly lurks a vein of sly humour. However, my readers shall judge for themselves from the following paragraphs: "Dr Ward has shown very clearly how much the appearance of a fly under water depends on its position with relation to both the fish and the sun, or, at any rate, the point in the sky where the sun should be visible. Even on a grey day the light rays from that point are, I presume, the strongest. If the fly is between the sun and the fish during the whole of its course, I am satisfied from what I have seen that the wing is of little or no importance so far as lustre and colour go; it can be no more than a shape to the fish. The part of the fly which in that position has definite value is the hackle, with the body, if it is of translucent material, since it admits the light through it and is full of iridescence.* A heavy, opaque wing, so far from being useful, might prove a disadvantage, since it would prevent some light reach- ing the hackle. The moral seems to be — ^for a fly fished between the sun and the salmon, no wing at all, or very little, but plenty of clear hackle and a translucent body. " But supposing one were covering the fish from the other bank, there would be a material difference in the conditions, and the fish, being between the sun and the fly, would be able to see every detail of a mixed wing, the colour of head and butt, the nature of body and ribbing, and so on, and with this in mind I should assume that now the intricate blend of metal, silk and feather was more likely to catch a fish than a fly of simple construction, which would be less noticeable and less attractive. So here I read another moral — ^for a fly fished beyond a salmon when the sun is behind the angler, a pattern which is striking by its blend of colour and arrangement, rather than one which depends on translucency." It strikes me, as an old salmon-fisher, that any angler who decided upon carrying these practical considerations into effect would spend half his time in changing the fly with every change of his own position. If salmon 'Iridescence arises from reflected, not transmitted, colour-rays. 60 I SALMON FLIES rivers ran as straight as a Roman road, lie would only have to adjust his lures to the changes in the sun's position; but salmon rivers run most wanton courses, bending east and west, north and south, in a manner most disconcerting to the theorist; wherefore, praiseworthy as is Dr Ward's diligence in observation, and lucidly as Mr Sheringham has explained his conclusions therefrom, I, having but a very limited number of fishing seasons before me, despair of adjusting my practice to the niceties of sub- aqueous optics, and must needs continue under the impression received during the many fishing seasons behind me, which is that neither colour nor material in flies affects in the slightest degree the salmon-fisher's success, but that size of fly and reasonably life-like motion are all important. My friend Mr P. D. Malloch described to me an instance which came under his own observation, and which bears upon the problem of what may attract a salmon. Looking over the parapet of a bridge — ^I think it was on the Tummel — he saw a couple of salmon lying in the pool beneath him. He felt in his pockets for something to throw to them, but he could find no more suitable missile than a peppermint drop, which he sent down. As it went twirling towards the bottom, one of the salmon moved slowly towards it, took it in its mouth, and presently expelled it. Had there been a hook in that simple sweetmeat, what a vogue might have been established for the novel lure! 61 SALMON-FISHING By the RIGHT HON. SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART. HE angler, having equipped himself according to the precepts set forth in the foregoing chapters (so far, at least, as they accord with his individual fancy), will now proceed to the riverside to apply the apparatus of the craft to its purpose. Of that craft there is only one branch, namely, fly-fishing, whereon I can presume to offer any observations, forasmuch as a man should only preach what he is prepared to practise, and I have never practised any other. And yet — and yet — I must not pose as being more virtuous than it lies in human nature to be. As was once remarked by a contrite sinner — " I can resist everything except temptation "; and the way in which I suc- cumbed to temptation on one occasion is too deeply impressed on memory to be slurred over with an easy conscience. It was on that fine stream, the Logen Elv or Sand River, in southern Norway, and at that part thereof where, after pouring with much fury through a rocky gorge, the water spreads out into a wide, almost circular, basin which can only be fished from a boat, except at one point where the rush of the rapids first slackens. There is a recess in the cliff at that point, standing in which, at a height of five -and -twenty feet or so above the water, the angler can get his line over some very likely lies. Moreover he can see certain very interesting objects moving in the clear green spaces among the effervescing bubbles, and further down, where the bubbling ceases. Well, to this pulpit I climbed one day, and there were the fish, sure enough, I suppose a couple of score of salmon, great and small, sailing leisurely about in the deep, strong water. I put my fly over them with much confidence; but it was in vain; not one would give it any attention —crikey! what was that ? Just the biggest salmon I ever saw in my born days. It came round with the current, dwarfing a couple of twenty pounders in its wake into insignificance, and, just as my Silver Grey passed over it, the monster came to the surface, inspected the fly and — turned away. Aye, that was a moment, for he looked for all the world like taking; but it was not to be. Time after time, as the great fish's perambula- tion brought him within reach, I gave him the choice of a variety of flies, but I never again succeeded in getting the least sign of notice. 62 X H < 1- Z Z < u u ' il' ii •JN '^ "* ';/r'^ in z z < U Mt-^- By tie RfGHT }*/ •^T MAYWr/ u»«ri i ag to Zr- ,i, at lea^i, ab .^^ proceed to u 'f to its purpoftt:. t.iy, fly-flshhtfi observations, forasr to practise, and 1 L*uii^; Mi'jrc vixiuuus uian ii i:es viatVed by a contrite sinner — " t \d thf» Tvay In which I sue : ested on menior >a« on tbat fine streani oi iifear. obj«ia» ii< an.-t Aafrt -^itafni-^ . icens. at a ht great put my Hy over them wis ; give it any atte q^esi suiuuin i ev«r saw ' ^^r* dwarfing a couple ..i i>7».-ii.j . and. lust tis mv SHvpr Hrey .■ '»»!rf'/ ^«t hsh's peram: 'Oii» of a vaiiofy of tUi-: ignof notice. SALMON-FISHING Here fain would I stop, for the rest is but a chapter of temptation and discomfiture. I sent and borrowed some prawns and tackle from a friend; I sullied my fingers by rigging out the unlovely crustacean upon the hooks, and I affronted the lordly salmon by dangling it before him every time he came within reach. He, as well as every other fish in the pool, treated the stinking bait with the contempt that I felt was my own due for using it, and I left him slowly gyrating in the green depths. I dare not guess at the weight of this fish. He was a great, square -set male, rather red, with enormous fins, and he made every other fish in his company look like a grilse. That is the first and only attempt I have ever made to fish with prawn, and in all probability it will prove the last. Only twice have I taken salmon on any other lure than the artificial fly^K)nce, accidentally, when spinning in Loch Arkaig for the big trout fondly termed Salmo ferox, and once, by deliberate intent, spinning a bleak in a huge Norwegian river. Natural and artificial spinning baits, the loathly worm and the odoriferous prawn — ^all have enthusiastic ad- vocates, and no doubt each calls for skilful manipulation; indeed I have heard it claimed for prawn-fishing that it is a more delicate art than fly- fishing. So it may be for all I know to the contrary, though it certainly does not look like it. Having no inclination to exalt fly-fishing at the expense of other methods of angling for salmon, let me state all that I consider the pros and cons of bait -fishing. First as to pro: Undeniably there are certain salmon-haunted waters, such as Loch Tay or Loch Ness, where the fish lie so deep that it is futile to angle for them on the surface, and where they must be attracted by a spinning-bait sunk to within range of their vision. In such places the veriest tyro starts on even terms with the most experienced veteran, each re- lying upon the local knowledge of the boatmen, and enjoying an equal chance of having his bait seized by a forty-pounder. Neither skill nor knowledge bear any part in the performance so far, and this in itself surely tends to lower bait-fishing in the scale of sport. When a salmon is hooked, indeed, the odds turn in favour of the old hand, for lake salmon are often of great size and fight violently, and a novice is apt either to lose control in the first rush, thereby allowing the fish to get out of hand, which is a common preliminary to getting away; or he holds it too hard until the rod is pulled nearly straight with the line and a fatal rupture is the result. 63 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD Again, there are certain rivers, or places in them, where salmon must be sought with sunk bait or left alone. Such is the Foss Pool of the Norwegian Aaro, a river renowned for heavy fish, although its whole course from the foss (above which salmon cannot go) to the sea is only about a mile in length. The said Foss Pool is a swirling cauldron of immense depth; fly-fishing is out of the question, and nobody will question the legitimacy of offering the only class of lure that can produce any result. But the legitimacy, or at least the expediency, of raking with minnow or prawn a river where salmon rise freely at the fly is not so apparent. It cannot be doubted that fly-fishing causes a minimum of disturbance to the fish in any stretch of water; whereas the flinging of a leaded bait made to traverse the actual lie of the fish must create a maximum of disturbance. Consequently if A is fishing a cast with fly from one bank it manifestly impairs both his enjoyment and prospect of sport if B — a bait -fisher — is plying, or has recently been plying, his craft from the other bank. It is quite true that, under certain conditions of weather, especially early in the season, salmon that refuse to rise at the fly may be taken with spinning-bait; but these occasions occur far less frequently than is alleged by advocates of bait-fishing. By far the greater part of my salmon-fishing in British waters has been in February, March and April, the months when spinning baits are most in vogue, and I have repeatedly compared the results of my exclusive use of the fly with those other baits used by my companions. These results usually balanced each other. I can re- member one occasion only when bait beat fly hollow. That was in the bitter weather of April, 1904, when the late Lord Percy and myself fished the Spey at Wester Elchies for a week. It blew hard, with frequent blizzards, the whole time; he took nine salmon with gudgeon, while I killed but one with the fly. Per contra: Fishing the Teith on February 17, 1871, I killed on the fly three salmon, 18 J, 18 and 16 lb., and lost a fourth; whereas Lord Moray's keeper, fishing the same water on the same day with spinning- bait (reputed to be the only useful lure when there is snow in that river), failed to touch a fish. . The Tay is a river where, in the spring months, anglers are told to rely mainly on spinning-baits. How groundless is the belief in their superior attraction even when the water is full of "snaw broo'," let the following register of salmon killed on the fly only by three rods in the Isla-mouth 64 0. U H < z o H H z o SALMON-FISHING and Cargill waters, with alternate days on Stobhall and Stanley. All three anglers were seldom out on the same day, but thirty-two salmon, not entered in the subjoined list, were killed on the fly by the Duke's guests during the period specified: T\^» Number Total Uato 1Q1A Angler. of Individual Weit ^Twn 'unr«ft•OIla^W tate «4uu*e illlMitl 'J spawning t ». Willi when 1 landed .. . : -" 'r^e kel' i i%.«. '^tk abc,. . ...--I read?'' "''»" dects ♦" ^'«h with halt w-W *nttv/ coun«ul from me. ill se^ Isewhere. i ^>wfv«a>« refrain from notidag one moat remarkable result of SALMON-FISHING Dr Francis Ward's experiments wliich Iiave been referred to in the last chapter. No satisfactory explanation had ever been offered of the fact that a small fish used as bait becomes more attractive to large fish when it is made to spin in a most unnatural manner. Dr Ward has cleared up the mystery in his volume entitled •* Marvels of Fish Life," which I cordi- ally commend to my brother anglers as a treatise equally entertaining and instructive. From his subaqueous chamber, and by the aid of photo- graphy, he has elucidated the puzzle why so many fish — salmon, herrings, dace, etc., have glittering silvery sides, which, from a human stand- point, seems to render them conspicuous and therefore more liable to attack from predacious enemies. So far is this from being the case, Dr Ward has shown conclusively that the shining panoply is indeed protec- tive, because, so long as the fish retains its normal position, belly down- wards, and illuminated from above, its silvery scales act as a mirror, reflecting the surrounding weeds, water or rocks. Directly it changes its sides from a vertical to a horizontal or slanting position, the mirror reflects the light of the sky and we see the fish flashing in the water. A bleak, therefore, swimming leisurely in the current is but faintly visible; put the same fish on a trace and cause it to spin, and it becomes a sparkling object. If I am unable to offer any counsel upon bait-fishing for salmon, neither can I undertake to expound the more graceful art of fly-fishing in such manner as will enable the inexpert to dispense with ocular demonstra- tion by an adept. Reams have been written — ^folios printed — giving minute instructions for executing the various methods by which a salmon-fly may be projected to a satisfactory distance; but never have I been able by perusing them to add one tittle to the modicum of skill acquired by watching others. Only one precept can I think of that is of general and invariable application in casting a salmon-fly, namely, that it must be done from the shoulder and not, as in trout-fishing, from the wrist and fore-arm. Whether the particular action be that of the overhead cast, the underhand cast, the switch or any modification of the Spey cast, the arms must work in an even sweep from the shoulder. The commonest fault in salmon-fishers is casting from the elbows. It is quite possible to get out a fairly long line by that action, but it entails far greater exertion than when the arms sweep freely from the shoulder. Moreover the rod resents it. It is possible to pronounce by the sound alone from which joints in his arms an unseen salmon-fisher is casting. If it is from the 67 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD elbow, the rod makes a loud " swoosh " in the forward stroke; if it is from the shoulder, the cast will be noiseless, unless it be made against a stiff breeze, when the line will make a whistling sound. When fishing with a fairly long line, it is expedient to shorten it before recovery for the next cast by drawing in two or three yards which, lying loose, may be released at the moment of casting. In overhead or under- hand casting, but not in Spey casting, it should be the fisher's object to cause the fly to fall on the water, if not before the line, at all events not after it. It must be confessed that, in a swollen river, a lubberly cast is almost as likely to raise a fish as a skilful one, but the act of casting becomes a pleasure when the knack of doing it artistically has been ac- quired; and it will be found that if, at the last moment of delivering the cast, a slight tilt upwards is given to the butt, the line will extend itself more freely, and the fly drop more lightly than when the action is a single forward one. This tilt also allows the loose line to run more freely through the rings. All the motions in casting must be even and continuous; nothing ap- proaching a jerk must be permitted, save in the last movement of the Spey cast. The end of the cast is quite as critical as the beginning. After drawing in two or three yards of slack, there should be a momentary poise before lifting the fly from the water, first, to prepare the rod for the strain of lifting a heavy line, and second, to avoid a smash by a fish taking it at the last moment. Many a top joint has been shivered by a salmon seizing the fly just before it is violently snatched from the water; still more often a salmon which has followed the fly round and is about to seize it, has had it whisked away from him. It is a rule to which I have never met with an exception that a fish disappointed in that manner cannot be tempted to renew the offer. This leads to another point in practice wherein salmon-fishing differs essentially from trout-fishing. The trout-fisher, no matter how adept he is — nay, the more adept he is at his own craft — must break himself of the habit of striking on the rise. Nothing is more difficult. In trout- fishing, unless one strikes directly the water is seen to break, it is not likely that the trout will be hooked. If one does so in salmon-fishing, he is almost certain to miss his fish. I have satisfied myself of this by watch- ing from a height the fly of an angler below me. A salmon rises to the fly; sometimes he takes a look and sinks down again without breaking the surface of the water. The angler is unconscious that he has moved a 68 X < H a X H z o >^ H OS < Oh o z 1/3 SALMON-FISHING fish. At other times the salmon will come up, pause behind the fly, and then seize it, still without perceptible commotion of the surface. The first intimation of the rise is communicated to the fisher by the stoppage and tightening of the line. Again, a third fish may rise to the surface, causing a boil in the water, or even showing himself well above the sur- face. That is the trying moment for the fisher. Woe betide him if he strilces at sight ! That is to snatch away the fly from a willing taker; the fish departs disappointed, and cannot be induced to repeat the offer. The visible rise was caused by the salmon coming up to have a look; a second later, had the steady motion of the fly been continued, it would probably have been seized, and the fish have hooked himself satisfactorily. In exceptionally rough water, where a salmon is lying in the slack between two driving currents or in the cushion of water formed above a rock,* he may rise with a sudden swift dash without the customary poise. In such a case the fish will make himself felt before the angler can strike with a heavy rod. The form of rise most trying to uncertain nerves happens in smooth water when the wave of a fish betrays that he is following the fly. On no account should the movement or rate of the fly be altered; I have often seen a salmon swim leisurely after it and seize it within a few feet of the near shore. If the fisher has the nerve and knowledge to keep the fly moving steadily, he is pretty sure to hook his fish, and a fly taken in this manner usually gets a firm hold. Once the fish is felt to have taken the fly, the angler may strike home if he likes; though, for my own part, I do not believe in any more of a strike than is caused by raising the rod quickly to the angle of action. Striking a trout is done by a slight jerk from the wrist; hooking a salmon is best done by its own weight upon a raised rod. The trout-fisher, at least the fisher for large trout, will have been trained to keep his fingers clear of the line, and to strike from the reel. In salmon-fishing it is different: the forefinger of the uppermost hand should be kept firmly on the line. The reason for this difference is ob- vious. Gossamer gut is liable to snap when a big trout takes the fly, unless the line is allowed to run freely from the reel; but salmon tackle must be so strong as to stand a pluck heavy enough to bury the barb of a large *The common belief that a salmon rests behind a rock is generally erroneous. In nine cases out of ten the shelter- ing rock is behind the fish. I was able to convince a friend who expressed incredulity about this by taking him upon the bridge over the Kvina, below Liknxs. We could see eight salmon lying there in the heavy stream, every one having a big rock behind him. 69 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD hook. The check of the reel may be stiff enough to do so; but unless a finger is kept on the line, the salmon may run out a lot of it and be out of control for some moments after it is hooked. Personally I have acquired the habit — be it a good one or not — of holding a bight of the line in my disengaged hand, and giving a jigging motion to the fly. I do not know that this makes the lure more attractive to the fish, but I fancy it gives the fisher an addi- tional thrill at the moment of hooking. Here, then, are three particulars wherein the fly-fisher for trout must alter his practice when he aspires to salmon. 1st, the cast is made from the shoulder instead of from the elbow or wrist; 2nd, he must keep a finger on the reel-line till the salmon is hooked; and 3rd, he must exer- cise the strictest control over himself so as not to alter the movement of hand, rod or line when he sees a salmon come to the fly. I have laid stress upon these three points because they are those most likely to escape the notice of one watching an expert salmon-fisher at work. Everything else in casting may be acquired, as aforesaid, from example far better than from written dissertation; and this applies with even greater force to the Spey cast, whereby an adept can fling a far longer line than anybody can manage overhead or underhand. Directions for making the Spey cast have been given over and over again in works on angling, but it is extremely unlikely that anyone ever acquired the valu- able knack by studying them. There exists a still more cogent reason for not attempting to give instruction in the Spey cast on this page, to wit, that I have never acquired the knack myself. When the wind blows downstream and (this is very material) when no critic is watching me, I can get the fly fairly well over the river by a sort of Spey cast; I have often landed fish hooked by this means; but I am always surprised when the performance comes off satisfactorily. As in casting, so in fishing a stream or pool, there is no means of com- municating the proper method except by example. Here again salmon - fishing differs materially from trout -fishing — ^the experienced trout - fisher knows pretty well where to look for trout even in a stream which he has never seen before; but no matter how well versed the salmon- fisher may be in his craft, in coming to an unfamiliar river he must rely upon his gillie for guidance where to cast his fly. In some of the likeliest looking places salmon never lie, or, lying, will not take the fly; while the surest spots may be devoid of any feature to attract a stranger's attention. 70 SALMON-FISHING There is only one method of fishing a cast which one is not likely to picic up from watching an ordinary salmon-fisher, because, except in fishing the Tweed " dubs " from a boat, it forms no part of the common practice, although in effect I have found it very deadly. It consists in fish- ing a stream upwards from the foot instead of downwards from the top; not casting up stream, but rather more across than when moving down, and, as soon as the line is on the water, moving upwards two or three paces after every cast. Where the current is fairly brisk it may be fished first from the top to the bottom in the usual way; then drawing out a few yards more line throw the fly straight across the river and take a couple of steps backwards, continuing the movement till you reach the top of the pool. This is called '* backing it up." Times without number have I known salmon succumb to these tactics, after showing indifference to the orthodox downstream approach. Whether or no the fly coming up from behind a fish excites his curiosity more forcibly I know not, but certain it is that he is more likely to be securely hooked, owing to the angler's backward movement having taken the bight out of the line. My experience on February 26, 1900, may be cited in favour of this miode of fishing a cast. On that day I had beats 1 and 2 of the Helmsdale river at my disposal. The water was very heavy, and there was a sharp frost in the morning. Beginning at Kilfedder Pool, the lowest cast on No. 2, 1 touched three fish slightly in fishing it down. I then began backing it up, and by the time I got to the top I had five spring salmon on the bank. I then fished down the whole length of No. 1 beat without moving a fish. Having arrived at the bottom of the Flat Pool, the lowest in the river, I backed it up, and again when I reached the top of the pool I had five salmon out. On the way home I fished Saliscraggie stream down, getting an eleventh fish in eleven consecutive rises, and without seeing a kelt all day.* Ten out of these eleven fish were killed in backing up. On this occasion there was the less reason to expect advantage from this method because, owing to the high water, there was plenty of move- ment in all the pools; but in a sluggish river like a great part of the Thurso, it is the only means of covering the water effectively. It was in that river that I learnt the merit of this device long ago; since when I have killed far more salmon in that way than in fishing down, in those rivers where it is possible to cast from the bank. Of course it cannot be done where one has to wade. *These were all small spring fish— 11, 10, 9, Si, Si, Si, 8, 8, 8, 8 and 7 lb. 71 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD However widely anglers differ among themselves about the amount and degree of secondary movement that should be given to the fly (and they do differ considerably both in theory and practice), nearly all are agreed that a low rod-point and a sunk fly are features of sound fishing; yet I have known the contrary practice meet with remarkable success. Any orthodox salmon-fisher watching for the first time the late Dr Begg, of Reedsmouth, fishing the North Tyne which flowed at the foot of his gar- den, must have pronounced him an ignorant bungler, for he used to fling his flies (he always fished with two woolly, over -feathered things) at right angles to the stream, and, raising his rod-point aloft, drew them along the surface to his feet. Hopeless, one should say, especially as he always fished with treble gut and never varied the size of his flies, no matter what were the conditions of weather and water; yet in the season of 1867, when I first made acquaintance with the North Tyne, he killed upwards of 150 salmon and grilse. Salmon almost invariably take up their station in the main stream; it is therefore vain to look for them in those side channels which a great river sometimes forms, and which often prove well worthy of the trout fisher's attention. But in a high water it is sometimes profitable to fish those backwaters where the current runs strongly in the contrary direc- tion to the course of the river. One of the severest runs I ever had was with a fish hooked in the backwater of the Pass Pool on the Leny above Callander. I had nobody with me, and a hard job it was to follow the salmon, which ran straight out of the pool into the rough rapids below. Down, down he went, and down, down I followed him, waist deep at tim^es where trees stood in the fiooded river. It was early in February and the water was uncommonly cold, but I was hot enough by the time we got down — ^the fish and I — to Black Donald's Pool, about 400 yards below the Pass pool. Imagine my chagrin when I found I had taken a ducking for nothing; the line lay loose in the water; probably the fish had broken away as it caught among the rocks in that terrific rapid. I began winding in disconsolately. Just then Anderson, Lord Moray's keeper, came along. I was in the middle of a description of my mishap when I found the shortened line pointing up stream, hanked on a rock, I supposed, and was on the point of handing the rod to Anderson to release it, for I was tired and cross, when I felt a pull — another, and another. The fish was still on, and we soon had him out, a fine springer of 18^ lb. Since then I have never neglected a likely backwater in a high river; but I must 72 Oh ■a S H OS u H s u z u n 6 z -J OS ^ SALMON-FISHING confess that only on two occasions has my diligence been rewarded. Once, on March 21, 1903, I started to fish the Dunkeld water of the Tay, only to find the river too big, rising fast, and getting dirty. Already branches and rubbish were tossing on the stream, so I turned to go home. Passing the Warren Pool I was tempted to put a big fly over the strong back- water that washes the north bank. The line was hardly out when it tightened strictly upon something — a floating branch, methought, but only for a moment. I was fast in something better; in a few miinutes I brought up a pretty sixteen -pounder to the gaff, and hied me home well pleased at this stroke of luck. There remains only one other mode of fly-fishing for salmon to be noticed, to wit, that known as " harling,'' which is practised from a boat on rivers so wide as cannot be fished from the bank or by wading, and where the current is too strong to allow casting from a boat rowed against the stream, as is the custom in fishing the Tweed " dubs."* In Scot- land the Tay is the only river in which resort is had to harling, and in Norway the Namsen is the type of river where the same method has to be adopted. Two, generally three, rods are projected from the stern of the boat, with flies or other lures trailing at the end of thirty yards or so of line. Beginning at the head of the pool the boat is rowed gently backwards and forwards across the river, being allowed to drop a little lower at each turn. The angler has nothing to do but keep awake, so as to be ready to take up the rod smartly when a fish hooks itself. Notice of that is conveyed to him by the fall of a pebble which is placed on the bight of the line close to the reel, and which is jerked off when the fish takes hold. While the angler attends to the hooked fish, the boatman rowing stroke reels up the other two lines out of harm's way. Harling is undoubtedly a deadly form of fishing, for the three flies or other baits traverse every foot of likely water without the slightest exer- tion on the part of the angler; but it is an indolent pursuit; it deprives the angler of that most exquisite sensation — the first pull of a salmon taking the fly; therefore harling should never be practised where fair casting is possible. On a great river in a state of flood it affords really the only reasonable chance of sport; but even on such a river as the Tay, it is quite 'These dubs are characteristic features of the lower part of the Border river. The term is applied to the Iod|, placid reaches with languid current, as at Sprouston, Birgham, Carham, etc. They hold great numbers of salmon at times. L , 73 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD possible to cast many of the streams effectively from a boat, although the temptation to the easier and lazier method seems irresistible to the majority of anglers on that fine river. Whether a salmon be hooked from the bank, from wading or by casting or harling from a boat, the main purpose of the angler should be to main- tain effective control over his fish from the first. Not a single yard of line should be given except under compulsion. If the fish runs down or up- stream, try and keep abreast of him, thereby avoiding manifold risks. One reads occasionally of prodigious fights with salmon lasting for several hours, but it is very seldom indeed that a practised salmon-fisher allows a fish fairly hooked in the mouth to play for more than fifteen minutes, provided he can follow that fish. A salmon foul hooked in the body or in a fin may take far longer. There are places, of course, where the nature of the river bank — trees, rocks or other obstacles — ^render it impossible to follow a fish. If a salmon runs downstream and can neither be followed nor coaxed to swim up again, he may set his captor at defiance for an in- definite period. But given the power of keeping abreast of the fish and an understanding of its position in the water, the struggle should end in one way or another in a very few minutes. Considering that the utmost strain that can be exerted by the fisher with the strongest tackle amounts to no more than about 3 lb., it is surprising how soon the power of a fish is exhausted, if it is intelligently handled.* That salmon are not always intelligently handled may be judged from the absurd descriptions one reads of fish sulking or deliberately rubbing the line against a sharp rock so as to sever it. A fish is pronounced to be sulking when it remains without movement in deep water. Imagination pictures it prone at the bottom, ensconced behind some mighty rock; but the true position of that fish is vertical — head down, tail up — and all that the angler need do to set him moving is to lower the rod sideways and pull the fish off its balance. This cannot be done, as aforesaid, if the angler is a long way above the fish and is unable to get abreast of him. And so it is in every passage in the conflict. Let the angler realize the true position of the fish and make him fight the whole time. If he runs determinately, so much the better, he will be the sooner exhausted, es- pecially if the full strength of the tackle is opposed to him; if he turns *People often express incredulity about the limit of strain which an angler can put upon a fish with the rod upriiiht or at a safe angle. A strong gut cast may lift • weight of 10 lb. or 12 lb., but human arms will not prevail to raise a 4 lb. weight from the ground when attached to a line at the end of an 18-foot rod. Try it I 74 SALMON-FISHING sluggish, pull at him sideways and make him move, always keeping as near him — that is, with as short a line — as possible. The most dangerous manoeuvre a salmon can execute is to run downstream with the reel spinning, and then turn sharply to run upstream, causing a heavy bight in the line. If he leaps at the end of that manoeuvre, the resistance of the submerged line may snap the gut or the bagged line may catch round a boulder and the fish escape. It is well known to those who have experienced the difference that a salmon in a Norwegian river will show much wilder fight than the generality of fish of similar weight in British waters. It is not certain whether the Scandinavian fish are really more vigorous than the others (it is certain that a 1 lb. trout in a Highland loch takes far more killing than one of double its weight in an English chalk stream), or whether the greater severity of the conflict is owing to the superior weight and force of the current. The lower portion of the Spey is the only British water which the present writer has fished equal to a typical Norwegian river in volume and violence; and there, if a heavy salmon means to go down and gets his broadside against the stream, it tests both wind and limb to keep on terms with him. A friend of mine, fishing the Norwegian Rauma, happened to hook a pine -log floating down in midstream. Being un- willing to sacrifice a good casting line and fiy he held on and followed it, trusting to the chance of getting that log into some slack water. It took him down the distance of a full mile, and broke away in the end. My friend said he had never had such a severe and checkless run with the wildest fish. As a rule, it is expedient to deal vigorously with a fish from the moment it is hooked. If the hook has taken but a slight hold, the chance of landing the fish is not improved by prolonging the struggle through gentle handling. Suaviter in modo is right in offering the &y—fortiter in re im- mediately it is taken. The only exception to this arises when a fish is hooked in a dangerous place, as on the brink of a fall over which there is risk of his going. Here tender dealing at first may succeed in leading the salmon away from the point of danger, when rough treatment would frighten him into the thick of it. There is a fall of this nature on the Camisky water of the Lochy, above Torrs Castle, where the fish may take the fly where the water is actually sloping to the abyss. Goodness only knows what would be the result of a fish going over that cataract; such a contingency never befel me in that place; though it did in a similar 75 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD one at the foot of the Rough Isle of the Minnick. On that occasion I managed to follow the salmon through the roaring rapids below, and killed him in the Kettle Pool. Not so happily, for me at least, did my encounter end with a wild fish in the Norwegian Kvina in the summer of 1911. Hooked at the top of the Boat Pool (so called because there is no boat there) this fish never rested a moment, but tore up and down the whole length of the stream without a moment's hover or pause, finally disappearing over the fall at the foot, where no tackle could hold him and whither I could not follow. The position of the rod in playing a fish is a matter of cardinal mo- ment. The line must be kept taut all the time, but the rod must never be allowed to fall so nearly into a plane with the line as to lose the play of the flexible top joint. If that should occur a sudden plunge or twist by the fish would assuredly break the casting -line or the hook. It is the elastic pressure of the top and middle joints that eventually wears out the strength of a salmon. But if nothing else were done to bring the struggle to a conclusion, it might be indefinitely prolonged. The humane angler, desiring to be mercifully prompt in bringing it to an end, has another resource at his command — he can make his fish feel the power of the butt. Now this process has been the subject of endless misapprehension. To give a fish the butt is often understood as raising the rod to the perpendicular or beyond it as shown in Plate XV. To do so is to take the strain off the butt and to throw it upon the slender upper parts of the rod. To bring the power of the butt into play the rod should be held at about an angle of 45 deg. (Plate XVI), which, while retaining the play of the upper joints so as to relieve the strain on the line, throws the chief weight upon the strongest parts of the rod. There are times when a man may have to land heavy fish unaided by gillie, gaff or net. On such occasions the character of the river bank be- comes an important consideration, for the salmon must be " tailed " — ^that is, played till quite exhausted, towed into shallow water and grasped by the small of the tail. It is a delicate but fairly simple operation, when the shore is shelving, like the gravelly beach of the cast called Jock Sure in the Bemersyde water of the Tweed, where the boatman Moodie, fishing alone late one evening, hooked, played and tailed out a salmon of 42 lb. It is a difficult, often impossible, feat where the current is deep and swift and the sides rocky and precipitous, as I found to my cost one day when two ladies expressed a wish to see a salmon killed, which they had never 76 PLATE XV. EK.B - '^i ■•«»- THE WRONG WAY OF "GIVING THE BUTT." PLATE XVI. THE RIGHT WAY OF "GIVING THE BUTT.' SALMON-FISHING had the chance of doing. We were sitting at luncheon. At the foot of the garden runs the Penkill, a mountain tributary of the Cree, much frequented by sea-trout and occasionally harbouring an odd salmon or two. It was in high spate at the time, and I volunteered to show them how the trick was done. Accordingly, I borrowed a rod and tackle from my host and off we set; but so slender did I deem the chance of meeting a fish that I did not take a gaff with me. There is a pretty pool below a bridge in the garden. I ought to have crossed the said bridge, for the bank is clear on the far side with a strip of shingle; but I stupidly began casting from the near bank over a thicket of rhododendron, with the stream rushing deep and swift along the rocks below them. At the third or fourth cast up came a nice little salmon of 9 lb. or so, and hooked himself. I was helpless, I could not lead the fish downstream, for the trees grew close down to the water edge. Forcing my way through the rhododendrons, I got down on the rocks, and, when the fish was ready for the gaff I ought to have brought, I brought him alongside repeatedly, but as often as I did so the stream swept him away. Twice I actually had my hand on him, but could not get a grip of his tail. At a third attempt, the hold gave way and my fly was left dangling in mid-air. One autumn day's experience in the North Tyne ought to have con- vinced me of the folly of going salmon -fishing without a gaff. The river had been pronounced unfishable, being in high flood and discoloured. However, being lodged in a small country inn without much resource of recreation, I took my rod and went up alone to the Hargroves water for a stroll. Seeing a fish rise at the edge of the Chalet stream, I put a big fly over him, little expecting him to take notice of it. He not only took notice, but he took the fly, and after becoming resistance, was tailed out. This encouraged me to persevere; the streams were full of fish, so that, despite the unpromising condition of the water, by nightfall I had tailed out no fewer than ten fish weighing 90 lb., breaking my top joint three times in doing so. It is impossible to calculate the amount of time lost in playing the fish owing to the want of a gaff, and in splicing the rod which the gaff would have saved from being broken; the slain would probably have numbered half as many again but for my carelessness. The observations in this chapter have been directed to salmon -fishing in rivers; there remains but little to be said about fly-fishing for salmon in lakes, because there are comparatively few lakes in which that branch 77 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD of angling is profitable. In most great lakes salmon lie too deep to be attracted by surface lures; but there are smaller sheets of water with a moderate average depth where excellent and exciting sport may be had with the fly. Most of the fishing has to be done from a boat, which has this advantage, that a lighter rod — say 14 or 15 feet long^-can be used than is required in a river where long casting has to be done; but to enjoy lake -fishing for salmon in perfection it must be practised where the angler can cast from the shore or by wading — conditions which are seldom to be obtained. The charm of such a situation consists in the wild rush which a salmon, when hooked in comparatively shallow water, makes for the deep, tearing out perhaps a hundred yards of line from the fisherman as a fixed point. Another delightful feature in lake -fishing with fly is the usual charac- ter of the rise. In river-fishing half — more than half — the salmon hooked never break the surface when taking the fly. In four cases out of five the angler feels his fish before he sees it; but in lake -fishing the proportion is reversed, and this undoubtedly makes the sport more exciting. It also imposes a severer test on the fisherman's skill, for he must own a steady set of nerves who can refrain from striking when he sees a great salmon launch himself out of the side of a wave or roll up at the fiy, head and tail on the rippled surface of the loch. Just as in river -fishing, so in lake -fishing, the penalty for striking at a salmon on the rise is to miss the chance of hooking him. And now let me refresh the reader, wearied with this long technical dissertation, with a glimpse of Highland sport on the noblest river in Scotland, as it was my privilege to enjoy it during the present year. Brown, blue, rifle-green, and again brown — these are the prevailing tints in the February landscape of lower Strathspey. But the brown is no uniform monotone; that term must serve to express many shades — dull umber of ploughed land, wan tint of dormant pasture, golden russet of withered fern, purpled hue of budding alder and birch, tawny spray of larch, and the sombre, yet kindly, gloom of moorland. Thousands of acres of solemn pines mantle the uplands with rifle-green; to the south, Ben Aigan and Ben Rinnes strike the note of blue, and behind them the horizon is looped and folded by the great Cairngorm range — ^the only Scottish mountains which the primitive Gael distinguished by the epithet *' gorm " — ^blue. There is plenty of human industry in this spacious strath, but for the 78 SALMON-FISHING most part it is silent. The ploughs are busy on the cornland, but the share turns the lea noiselessly; a man may pass a whole day beside the river without hearing a sound betokening the presence of his own kind, except, it may be, the barking of a distant collie doing its master's bidding. Wading waist-deep in pursuit of spring salmon, I can hear nothing but what he might have heard who first penetrated the solitude of Strathspey at the close of winter — ^the humming of a nor'-easter among the pines, the rushing of a swollen river, and the querulous piping of a flock of brilliant oyster -catchers. Presently another and a very different note rises clear above the rum- bling of the water. Far up on the opposite cliff a blackbird begins to carol among the pines — ^the first of the season in this northern latitude. What quality there is in the voice of that diminutive creature, causing it to be heard clearly above the roar of the swiftest and most violent river in the United Kingdom — a triumph of quality over volume of sound. And I hold that the merle is distinguished among all British songsters by the quality of its song. The throstle is more voluble, but its melody lacks the liquid purity of the merle's; besides, it repeats the same passage so incessantly as to become almost wearisome. The blackbird's song is not so well sustained, but its variety is infinite. This train of thought was inter- rupted by a sudden, violent wrench at the three -inch fly which I had been flinging rhythmically and mechanically over the troubled waters for the space of an hour and more. Bending greenheart and singing line — ^the acme of an angler's desire — ^followed by tremulous speculation whether the fish should turn out to be a springer or a kelt, presently to be solved by the said fish throwing itself in the air at the end of a brisk run and dis- playing the matchless shape and shining mail of a twelve -pounder fresh from the salt water. Less than ten minutes suffice to end the contest in favour of the biped, and another minute must be given to contemplation of the lustrous prize. One never tires of admiring the exquisite form and colour of a new-run spring salmon. No vertebrate animal displays a more perfect adaptation of build to its mode of life — rapine by swift movement through strong water. The strange thing about the salmon is that, unlike most vertebrate creatures, it parts with all its comeliness on the approach of the nuptial season. The beauty of other animals usually is enhanced at the pairing time — the cock-pheasant raises a jaunty crest, his scarlet comb increases in size and brilliancy, his plumage gains a fresher sheen than at any 79 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD other season. And so it is witli mammals — the stag does not go courting till his antlers are at their prime; but from the moment a salmon quits the ocean to repair to the connubial shallows, it steadily deteriorates in appearance until it becomes positively unsightly. The head of the male lengthens and coarsens; his silvery coat tarnishes to dirty red and brown, the scales becoming half -buried in slime. The change in the female fish is even worse. There is no more flagrant case in nature of corruptio optimi pessimi, for, as a "baggit," she loses all her graceful shape, and her shiny sides and snowy underparts become overspread with a disagreeable sooty stain, almost black in some places. One might go prosing about salmon-fishing to an indefinite length so powerful is the spell it casts over its votaries; but a sense of propor- tion restrains me, and I must pass on to discuss the lesser nobility among the Saltnonidte. I can think of no more fitting close to this chapter than certain lines which I picked up when I was a boy, whence or by whom I know not, but I have left boyhood so far behind that the question of copy- right cannot arise. SAUMON. Air — " Cauld kail in Aberdeen." There's baddies in tbe Firtb o' Forth, There's turbot big and sma', man ; There's flukes, though they're but little worth, There's caller ou'* and a', man. But fish in shell or fish in scale Whate'er ye like 't to ca', man, There's nane can doot the very walet C fishes is a saumon. There's herrin' catch'd aboot Dunbar, An' whitin's aff Skateraw, man ; But wha sae daft as to compare The like o' them to saumon? The English folk like whitin's best, The Dutch eat herrin' raw, man ; But ilka body to his taste — An' mine's content wi' saumon. 'Fresh Oysters. Rapid and recent as are the changes, social, commercial and other, that have swept away ancient landmarks and immemorial customs, they have not yet prevailed against the Newhaven fish-wives. tThe best, the pick. 80 I SALMON-FISHING Oh ! mark him rinnin' frae the tide. In blue and siller braw, man ; The ticks upon his gawsy* side, Shaw him a new-rin saumon. An' though he 'scape the Berwick net The Duke at Floors and a', man. There's mony a chance remainin' yet To catch that bonnie saumon. Across the pool the fisher's flee Fa's licht as ony straw, man ; v Soops down the stream, an' synet a wee Hangs trem'lin' o'er the saumon. A moment mair — the line is stents — A rug§ — and then a draw, man ; And noo the supple top-piece bent — He's taigledi wi' his saumon. Frae aff the birling9 reel the line ' Like lichtnin' spins awa', man ; The fisher laughs, for he kens fine He's heuked a guidly saumon. He's up— he's doun— he's here — he's there, Wi' mony a twist and thraw,** man ; Noo deep in Tweed — noo in the air — My troth, a lively saumon I Though strenth an' nature for a while Can warstlett against a', man. Yet nature aft maun yield to guile As well in man as saumon. An' sae that merry fish that rose To tak' that flee sae braw, man, Noo sidelings sooms at its life's close A worn an' wearied saumon. Wi' ready ga£f the callant stan's, The fish ashore to draw, man ; The fisher bids him baud his ban's And no to hash his saumon. "He's clean dune oot: gae grip the tail, Just whaur it tapers sma', man ; And Ian' him up baith safe and hale — My sang I a bonnie saumon. Plnmp. tThea. tTant. JA tu^ ||Fa«teiied. JWhirriog. **Turn. ffWrettle. M 81 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD "Gae bid the lass set on the pat, An' see it's no ower sma', man ; An' pit twa gowpens in o' saut* To boil my bonnie saumon. An' send for Jock an' Rab an' Tam— They're fishers ane and a', man — An' bid them come to me at hame, An' eat my bonnie saumon." The gentry get their cooks frae France, Wi' mony a queer kickshaw, man ; But haith ! I wadna tak' their chance When I hae sic a saumon. Wi' it, an' some o' Scotland's best, A cheerer — maybe twa, man. We'll gang like decent folks to rest An' dream o' catchin' saumon. Ance I was dinin' in the toun Whaur a' thing is sae braw, man. An' there I saw a Lunnon loon Eat lobster sauce wi* saumon. Wae's me that sic a slaistert should Gang into mortal maw, man. To fylet the stamoch— spile the food— An' siccan food as saumon ! Wi' flesh as pink as rose in June, Wi' curd as white as snaw, man. An' sappy broe§ they boil't him in — Aye ! that's what I call saumon. To my best frien' I canna wish That better should befa', man, Than just to hae as guid a dish As we hae wi' our saumon. To Scotland's ilka honest son, Her dochters fair and a', man ; To a' that lo'es the rod and gun We'll drink wi' a hurrah, man. May they frae mony sporting days Baith health and pleasure draw, man ; May muircocks craw on a' the braes. The rivers swarm wi' saumon ! •Two handfuli of salt. tA iloppy mess. JDefile. SBroth. 82 i>%i i>ia'ttfi .' > X w < 0^ z H CO 0^ CJC-* : I't no ow«r «ma\ man : To b-"' "■'-■ 'I'^^ri'-, iOU. An' m. ^a' Kab an* Tarn— iiabers aoe and a', man— An lim mam oocnc to ma at ttaoM, Aa* cat ojT boante satnnon" Both^ hanca V VI U ijCtt, vo*« twa, man. W«'lt iaog like dcc. >fn OJUi U wc v'«^S»» OMilt 1 «T» B ! rwntw *ti9« ■'■ "^fiw, nan, 1. n4i« tba food An'«t( mui tood < w > g O H C/3 X H > :3Q o CV) G C > J;y uxe ROUT FiS! S. in their dlffereat ». occupy ati position, both in tdithyolofty and in sport, between t< and th« {re«hv 'iittlng tinct api^em of aitgratoi ctters, si3Lxm:i} tnttttt tb» true ainlmcm-ii . ^ ,-^., the aewin of .. rtvcra. q1-- ^ - lirt3nTl.''-i»ft1rn and S< •'r^%^. far in chart fair streaii : men « eea->trout. and the fish ueually recr , ir eftlinan-troiit a: tied whitllnga. A var* known in the lay a« ** anlmna b-. xi " gv weig^ y I ottoa acnit me a photograpu oi one wei£;nmg 'k^ ib. He con^.t t ^h to he true aalmon (S. saiar) whereoi the appearance has bv the process of spawning.* Their distinctfvo merfei consisti hoiweve tish b. ut ei»' niaed aa tea- ■ t" J 1 . ~ v Sm iimi, *««., p. IK.) -I«-»UL&T -fimCGS. " SEA-TROUT FISHING greater number of spots on the operculum and shoulder than a normal clean salmon bears, the presence of maggots in the gills (suggesting an estuarine habit) and pale, flavourless flesh. They are quite distinct from the sea-trout of the Tweed and the bull-trout of other rivers, and although Mr Galderwood reports having recognized fish similar to the Tay " sal- mon-bull-trout " in the Ness, Helmsdale and Dee, I consider that it would be a great mistake to believe that all salmon after spawning assume the characteristics of this variety. The sea-trout par excellence (Salmo trutta), whether it be called salmon- trout, as some do use, or white-trout as in Ireland, or whitling as in the Tweed, is probably — ^weight for weight — the most sporting fish in the British Isles; to offer it any bait except the artificial fly is — ^if not a crime- certainly a misdemeanour. To enjoy the sport in perfection, it should be sought in streams of such dimensions as may be effectively fished with a light rod — ^from nine to twelve feet long. Half the pleasure is forfeited if a more powerful rod, with correspondingly heavy line, has to be used, for although sea -trout of 5 or 6 lb. are not uncommon, such weights are exceptional, the majority will range from 1 to 3 lb. in June and July; later in the season the average will be reduced by the run of herlings — corresponding to the grilse stage in salmon — which weigh from half a pound to a pound.* Nevertheless, though the rod and tackle be light, the reel should hold not less than 100 yards of line, for a 6 lb. sea-trout in a Highland torrent makes a wild fight for freedom; besides which, there is always the chance of hooking a heavy salmon. My first salmon was hooked on a small fly with which I was fishing for sea -trout; and a difficult job I had to land him, being young and equally devoid of experi- ence, gaff and landing net. Seventeen pounds was the weight of my prize, fresh from the sea, and the human heart can scarcely be capable of more intense emotion than filled mine as I gazed upon the glittering prize laid out upon the shingle. Most of our large salmon rivers contain sea -trout, and when these are content to remain in the principal channel a rod of fifteen feet or so is neces- sary to cover the places where they lie. But as a rule these fish turn aside from the main channel into some tributary where an ordinary trout -rod is all that is required. Good sea -trout-fishing is far more difiicult to obtain in the United Kingdom than salmon -fishing. To secure a beat on a first- *The true sea-trout is occasionally taken in nets of far heavier weights. In Fig. 8 is a photograph by Mr Malloch of one weighing 18 lb. taken with the rod in the Tay in June, 1902; but such fish seldom rise to the fly. N 89 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD class salmon river is merely a question of what one is prepared to pay — a serious obstacle, indeed, to many an honest angler, for salmon -fishing is essentially an exclusive recreation and the rents demanded and readily obtained for waters of renown have risen to figures which would have been deemed incredible by a former generation. Expense, however, is not the only difficulty in the path of him who would have good sea -trout fishing. There are but few places to which he can repair and calculate on a few days' or weeks' sport without the formality of a lease, and such places are remote. Ballinahinch in Galway is one of these, where, in a chain of lakes connected with the sea by a short river, excellent sport may be expected by visitors staying in the hotels at Recess and elsewhere in the district. More difficult of access, but far more attractive than such semi -public assemblies of anglers, are the countless streams of Ireland and Scotland, chiefly on the western and northern coasts and among the islands, many of which dwindle to mere rills in time of drought, but in which the lucky fellow who happens to be on the spot when they are flooded is pretty sure of fast and exciting sport.* The main difliculty is to hit off the right nick of time, for such streams fall as rapidly as they rise; moreover, it is often not easy to find accommodation. Lodging, at best, may perhaps only be had in a shepherd's cottage, and even that may be several moorland miles from the fishing. One such stream as this comes to mind, flowing through a deer forest and falling into the head of a winding fjord or sea inlet in the West High- lands. There is no human habitation within ten miles of its banks; the solitude is profound; the silence broken only by the hoarse cry of the golden eagle on the hillside, the gabble of the grouse-cock, the wailing love -note of the curlew, the grunting croak of the raven and the clamour of gulls on the tide. Here is a river which would be well worth much pains to reach during a summer spate, for it draws a multitude of sea- trout and a fair number of salmon, which, when the flood subsides, congre- gate in a few deep, rocky pools. Yet in fact, I suppose, no fly is cast upon this charming stream more than once in five years; so, whereas the crofters in a neighbouring strath are wont to raid the pools, the proprietor draws a net there once in every season. I was present on one such occasion. He took us up the fjord in his yacht; we netted two pools and returned *On October 21, 1870, there wai a tremendous flood in the Luce, a river of Galloway, which did much destruc- tion, sweeping away a lar£e number of sheep. Yet when 1 arrived by train from Edinburgh at 4.30 p.m. the waters had subsided so quickly that I was able to kill with the fly a salmon of 16 lb. before 5.30, when it was dark. 90 SEA-TROUT FISHING with seven salmon weighing from 12 lb. downwards and 207 sea-trout from 5 lb. downwards. It was a tantalizing sight to one who reflected what sport these lovely fish might have afforded had there but been a spate at the right time. We had to find consolation in the satisfaction of many humble householders when these excellent fish were distributed in the clachan near my friend's shooting lodge. Even in a stream dead low, with a mere trickle connecting the pools, sea -trout may be taken with the fly at night, which is certainly more in accord with the spirit of sport than netting them out; but which, as Izaak Walton truly wrote of night -fishing, " is void of the pleasures that such days as these, that we two now enjoy, afford the angler." It certainly lacks much of the charm of daylight -fishing, chiefly because of the dif- ficulty of seeing the rise. That is also the cause why, in night-fishing, so many fish are pricked and missed. The flashing rise of a sea-trout differs entirely from the slower movement and poise of a salmon. If you strike on the rise of a salmon, you are certain to miss him; whereas you are nearly as sure to miss a sea-trout if you don't strike on the rise. Stronger tackle is required in night-fishing than is advisable by day, for a fish so hooked runs very wild and must be held tighter in the dark than when its move- ments can be anticipated and controlled in daylight. It is a common, but groundless, belief that white flies are more attractive than others in the dark. Dark ones are just as visible as light ones under the stars. It is no use attempting night-fishing in low water until fully an hour after sun- set; twilight will not do; the last radiance should have left the sky before the water is disturbed. It is remarkable, seeing how readily sea-trout take the fly after dark, that salmon will not be induced to do so also. Although I have often fished, and known others to fish, by night in pools where numbers of salmon were lying, only one instance has come to my knowledge of a salmon having been hooked and landed after dark. Many, perhaps most, of the streams most prolific in sea-trout run out of a loch, where these game fish give fine sport with the fly. But such lochs might be turned to advantage in a manner that has been very seldom adopted hitherto, whereby sea -trout fishing might be developed to almost any extent at a very moderate expense, namely, by storing the water and regulating the fiow so as to have the stream in fishing order whenever it is desired. Many of us must have realized the burden of the plaint uttered by the late Mr Bidder, K.C., who, after encountering repeated 91 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD disappointment through the caprice of the British climate, wrote these lines in the visitors' book of an hotel where he had wasted a good deal of his holidays waiting in vain for a spate : * Sometimes too early and sometimes too late, Sometimes too little and sometimes in spate ; Sometimes too windy and sometimes too calm, Sometimes too frosty and sometimes too warm ; Sometimes too drumly and sometimes too clear — There's aye something wanting when I'm fishing here. Wind and temperature may be reckoned as being independent of human control; but command of a hill loch, situated in waste land of merely nominal value, puts it in one's power to create an artificial spate at plea- sure. The first person to turn such capabilities to account was Mr Nay- lor and two friends, who, in 1888, during a period of great drought, dammed the outlet of Loch Langabhat in the Island of Lewis. There were thousands of salmon and sea -trout waiting in the bay for a chance of ascending the river Grimersta, which had shrunk to impracticable pro- portions. On August 21 he released the water which had been stored by the dam, thereby creating a spate in the little river. Salmon and sea- trout swarmed into it immediately. In six days before the end of the month these three gentlemen landed 333 salmon weighing 2,026 lb. and 71 sea-trout weighing 52 lb. In nineteen days' fishing Mr Naylor killed 214 salmon weighing 1,307 lb. and 304 sea-trout weighing 161 lb. His heaviest bag was on August 28, where in nine hours' fishing he landed 54 salmon, and left off an hour and a half before dark because, as he him- self confessed, he was " tired of slaughter." So would most of us have been, I fancy; salmon-fishing would part with its principal charm, which is inseparable from its uncertainty, if it were reduced to the mechanical pro- cess of hauling out a fish every ten minutes in a long day. The exploits of Mr Naylor and his friends are here referred to, not from any admiration for record-breaking — ^far from it — ^but as proof of the extent to which natural waters may be rendered productive of sport by artificial appliances. It is to be observed that the average weight of these Grimersta sea -trout was little over | lb. That low standard was owing to the angling having taken place in the month of August, when the great run of herlings or finnocks (sea -trout in the grilse stage) takes place. Had it been a month or six weeks earlier in the season, when the large sea -trout chiefly run, the result would have been very different — ^larger fish and fewer of them. 92 '.'H^^^IBf SEA TROUT FISHING— LOCH PLATE XIX. eostrol; bot «o«q^«' <••••« ta wmi« toe. «nmtnal rahse. mr itMl* SB artillclal 4 r«ro iariai m period ol ftrcst droog. .tf^iblMt te ite lafcuid of Uwte. IVrt rwM wiltiag In tka iMiy for • dmma • -, wUA Im4 fluvak to UupfcttcBifo p- ..K'.aAMi tfef> w3t»r wld^ kfld beat wtmnA .ttio rivir. SalnMm mid t In alx d«ys bcforo tbe «ad «dMl 133 MUmon welghlag 2,024 naCMB dayv* teUot Mr Ni «^ ib. and 304 Ma-Kroot vrtigliiag 161 ffer. I ..^Mt 28, wlMTo la aliMi kumn* lUhiag Im U"' «B hew aad a lialf before dark becenee. aie bt . od of elangbtsr/* So would moet of os b«^ b^ ^^ woold Rsrc with lt» principal charm, wh.cn II ei lel«i|. tf tr were reitnrril to tfin mnrtiinli lb ofery tea niaotaa la a long day. The I- ij ii.aideartbiTiniifoiiiii1nT.iifftfmn*nT'"''iii * '"^' ; -fv iram li bat aa proof of the extent to which sato i4»red prcdactivo of ap(»t by arttlldal applianoes M thmi the amrage weight of theae Griincreta eaip hat low ecaadard waa owing to the angling hav. >«th of Aagnet, wh^ the great run of berllngi ' ? grilM etage) takea plaoe. Had it been a mo ^ eaeaon. when the large aea-trewt chieily r diflrrrent^-JartSer fish and fewer of the: w>oi : ■■ T[ir»fiT A^» SEA-TROUT FISHING The present writer, strolling one day through the grounds of a million- aire, who had replaced a modest old Scottish mansion with a palace of exceeding splendour, came upon a gang of men working for a London contractor who had undertaken to lay out a large rock garden, without which no wealthy gentleman's establishment is now considered com- plete. Grand and costly as was the scale of the design, there seemed to me to be something puerile in the attempt to mimic with slabs of stone and buckets of cement the haphazard confusion of nature, for this park is situated amid some of the most romantic scenery in North Britain — amid soaring peaks, sweeping rivers and churning tides. It so happened that, although there were a thousand dripping crags and a hundred thunderous linns within a few miles of this garden, there was no water available on the spot, and a supply had to be brought from a distance at considerable expense in order to create a cascade for the rock garden. When I remarked to the young clerk of the works that he must have found some difficulty in this respect, he remarked proudly — "You would be surprised, sir, what a wonderful effect our firm can produce with a one -inch pipe ! " Even so, it is wonderful what improvement can be wrought upon the angling capabilities of small rivers through the judicious expenditure of moderate capital. In water storage lies the secret of the regeneration of depleted fisheries and the creation of new ones, whether for salmon on a large scale or sea-trout on a smaller one. The ideal in this matter is the storage of such a mass of water as will serve to maintain an even flow in the river throughout the summer droughts, thereby affording easy access to the fish and protecting them from the dangers inseparable from hanging about on the coast and in the estuary waiting for a flood and exposed to decimation by nets and natural enemies. Among the latter, seals and porpoises are the most relentless raiders, but even their depredations might not seriously diminish the shoals, which suffer chiefly from the perfection to which mechanical means of capture have been brought. In estimating the extent to which any river has been depleted of salmon by the action of nets, one has always to take account of the tendency of old fishermen to extol the doings of their youth and to compare the present unfavourably with the past. Moras tion numerant nisi serenas: overlooking the lean years, their memories retain the impression of seasons when salmon swarmed in every pool. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt whatever 93 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD that all the small salmon rivers of Scotland have been too severely netted, except in those cases where proprietors have adopted measures to allow of a fair proportion of spawners to reach the upper waters. I have before me as I write the returns of the angling syndicate which rented the Thurso for nearly fifty years, whence it appears clearly that the fishery steadily deteriorated from the time that bag nets were first set to work at Scrabster and elsewhere on the coast. Thus in 1863 seven rods accounted for 1,510 fish weighing 14,666^ lb.; while in 1887— the last year included in the return — eight rods killed only 302 fish. So seriously had the prospect of sport fallen off that about the close of the century when their lease terminated the lessees made no attempt to have it renewed. The most signal example of success in developing the angling resources of a salmon river is that of the Helmsdale. Naturally far inferior in volume to many other waters flowing into the Moray Firth, it has no superior in attraction for the fly-fisher. In a course of twenty miles through Strath UUie it presents a series of pools and rapid streams fulfilling the salmon- angler's ideal. Always renowned for the excellence of its spring -fishing, it was of little account during the summer months, for, so soon as the snow disappeared from the uplands of Caithness and the lochs had dis- charged the accumulation of winter floods, the river dwindled to insignifi- cance, and salmon collected near the mouth, being unable to ascend, were netted out in thousands. The shooting and angling of the strath were let on long leases to six tenants of the Duke of Sutherland, who became concerned on account of the serious depletion of the stock of salmon in the river consequent on the erection of bag nets along the coast towards Brora mouth in the year 1896. Previously to that year the only netting was done by net and coble in the lower pools; and this, productive as it was, allowed plenty of fish to run through in spring when the water was high. These nets did most execution in summer when, as aforesaid, angling was impracticable owing to want of water. But bag nets act independently of the state of the river, and it soon became apparent that the run of spring fish was to be seriously affected, if not destroyed, by the action of these automatic engines. In 1895 the net and coble took 4,619 salmon and grilse and the rods about 1,600 ; next year the bag nets were set up with the result that in 1899 they captured 8,658 salmon and grilse against 342 taken by net and coble and 307 by rods. Clearly, action of a vigorous kind was necessary if the 94 SEA-TROUT FISHING Helmsdale was to retain its reputation as an angling river. The tenants began by buying up the lease of the bag nets and of the net and coble, so that not a net was worked after the close of the season 1899. This told immediately upon the rod fishing, which accounted for 837 salmon and grilse in 1900 against 307 in 1899; but the summer fishing was still of no account owing to want of water, and it was decided to attempt to improve it by impounding the head waters of the river by damming up the lochs near its source and regulating the summer flow so as to admit free pas- sage for fish throughout the season. Accordingly in 1901 a dam dyke was completed at the outlet of Badan- loch raising the water-level by six feet. This inundated a good deal of worthless land and increased the area of the loch to six square miles. To prevent the stored water being prematurely wasted in creating tem- porary spates for the convenience of individuals, it was agreed that the Badanloch sluices should never be raised before June 1 in any year; but for the creation of such temporary spates as might be desired to relieve drought in the spring months, another dam was thrown across the outlet of Loch-an-Ruathair. The cost of the whole of the work was considerably less than £2,000, and the result has been to double the amount of angling; for, whereas there used to be practically no fishing between the miiddle or end of May and the autumn floods, the river now runs in fishing trim throughout the summer. Further, the lower half of the river, between Kildonan and the sea, used to cease to be worth attention after the spring fishing was over; it was only in the upper half of the river, from Kildonan up to Badanloch, that any sport could be expected late in the season.* Consequently, instead of 307 salmon taken by anglers in 1899, the annual average number from 1903 to 1907 was 1,217, since which the total bag for the season has sometimes exceeded 2,000 fish taken with the fly, all bait-fishing being strictly prohibited by the rules of the association. Of course it is difficult to distinguish between the direct effect of taking off the nets and securing an ample and continuous flow of water. Both were causes contributing to regenerate the fishing. But it is clear that, no matter how large was the stock of fish near the river mouth in summer, they were of no use to anglers during the normal drought and low water between May and autumn. It is the storage of water and regulation of the The open season for rod-fish!n£ on the Helmsdale ends on October 1, but by a self-denying ordinance angling eeases on September IS. 95 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD flow that have caused the Helmsdale, which was always a splendid spring river, to become an excellent summer one also. As I consider this system of water storage to be of the utmost importance in schemes for improving the fishing in small rivers, I append tables showing the returns of the various modes of taking salmon in the Helmsdale district during thirty-three years: Net and Year. Coble. Bag Nets. Rod Fiihini. Remarkf. 1864 1,608 __ • 1865 1,099 — — 1866 1,549 — — 1867 2,179 — — 1868 1,047 — — 1869 1,030 — — 1870 1,822 — — 1871 3.813 — — 1872 1,577 — — 1873 3,313 — — 1874 1.891 — — 1875 1,694 — — 1876 4,733 — — 1877 2,904 — — 1878 1,472 — — 1879 616 — — 1880 779 — — 1881 2,878 — — 1882 2,935 — — 1883 4,693 — — 1884 3,824 — — 1885 4,644 — — 1886 4,535 — — 1887 3,314 — — 1888 3,119 — — 1889 1,460 — — 1890 1,863 — — 1891 3,488 — — 1892 2,627 — — 1893 2,578 — About 600 1894 2,212 — About 500 1895 4,619 — About 1,600 1896 1,716 3,688 About 1,650 Bag nets commenced on the coast. 1897 820 7,570 507 1898 348 4,454 667 1899 342 8,658 307 1900 837 Bag nets and coble nets removed. 1901 752 Bandanlooh Dam 6nished. 1902 540 1903 — — 1,138 1904 — — 999 1905 — — 1,325 1906 — — 1,304 1907 — — 1,321 i I 96 SEA-TROUT FISHING Having regard to the ever-increasing demand for decent fishing, the importance of accessible means of recreation to a hard-working com- munity, and, not least important, the expediency of preventing high- class angling continuing to be the exclusive privilege of rich men and their friends — having regard, I say, to these considerations, it is much to be desired that means should be adopted to develop the angling re- sources of these islands. Wealthy proprietors of suitable waters have it in their power to do it for themselves; if they have no taste for angling, their neighbours or others will not prove unwilling to indemnify them for the expense by paying for the privilege of fishing where there is reason- able certainty of sport. In the case of landowners whose circumstances admit of no expenditure beyond the necessary outlay on maintenance and management (a class which the new system of taxation will shortly cause either to preponderate or disappear altogether), angling clubs may be organized capable of moderate enterprise for the improvement of the natural waters of a neighbourhood and to check poaching. One thing is certain, namely, that unless some measures are adopted to meet the aspirations of honest anglers of humble means, the agitation for free fishing will gather strength; and free fishing means futile fishing for everybody; for if all waters were thrown open to the general public, it would cease to be the interest of any individual to protect the fishery. Having undertaken to discourse about sea -trout fishing in this chapter, I have travelled rather far from that theme; but, in fact, the conditions essential to a good stock of sea -trout are inseparable from those affecting salmon. The means, mechanical or structural, to improve a salmon fishery are similar in kind, though smaller in scale and less formidable in expense, to those applicable to a sea-trout fishery, and can be adopted with advantage in many streams which have no pretension to be reckoned salmon-rivers. But to return to sea -trout fishing. It is singular that so bold a creature as the sea -trout — so alert in its movements, so predacious in its habits — can seldom be induced to rise a second time after missing the fly. I had almost, instead of ** seldom," written *' never," for that would be in accord with my own experience, which has been confined in the matter of sea -trout fishing to streams and lochs on the mainland of Scotland, where salmon and common trout are not usually daunted by missing at the first, second or third offer, provided nothing happens to arouse o 97 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD their suspicion. I have heard, however, from other fishermen that in the waters of the Western and Orkney Islands sea -trout do not show this peculiarity, but come again and again. There are many conventional, and not a few unconventional, patterns of sea -trout flies, nor have I been able to distinguish any preference shown by the fish for one colour more than another. Most people would be con- tent if they could number to their credit as many sea -trout as Mr H. C. Pennell has creeled. He is no believer in variety, having reduced his reper- tory to three or four wingless patterns, dressed with silk bodies and with black or red cock's hackles wound round the head. But among the points of di£Ference between salmon and sea -trout there is this, that whereas the salmon does not deign to feed, in the sense of taking nourishment, while in the fresh water, sea -trout do so freely, rising at natural flies as greedily, though not so regularly, as do common trout.* Neverthe- less, it profiteth little to waste time in matching the natural fly with the artificial, for sea -trout do not show any discrimination, seizing, when on the move, any life-like object of suitable size and motion. Those of less austere taste than Mr Pennell will scarcely be satisfied to limit their selection to his patterns, and, seeing how largely imagination contributes its charm to angling, they may choose to fill their books or boxes with miniature copies of any salmon-flies that may hit their fancy, or with enlarged versions of the flies used in flshing for brook-trout. He who has leisure and skill enough to dress his own flies (and nobody who has not done so can understand what a zest this adds to fly -flshing) may begin with the following recipes, the first three being variations of the late Francis Francis's favourite pattern. 1. Tail, a tuft of orange floss; body, cinnamon-coloured mohair, ribbed with fine silver twist, finished at the shoulder with a coch-y-bondhu hackle (that is, the red cock's hackle with a black list down the middle); wing, two strips of teal. 2. The same, except that the body is half scarlet, half black mohair. 3. The same, except that the body is in three equal compartments of yellow, scarlet and black mohair. 4. Tail, a small topping; body, lemon -yellow mohair ribbed with gold twist, a ginger cock's hackle at shoulder; wing, two gold -pheasant tippet feathers, with strips of pintail over. *The fact of salmon rising at the natural March brown has been reported by several competent witnesses ; but although I have often seen water containin| many salpion thickly sprinkled with freshly-risen March browns, I have never seen a salmon take one. 98 PLATE XX. Pholo by) LOCH LEVEN TROUT. 3 years 4 months old lib. 4 years 4 months old 21b. 2 years 4 months old Jib. IP. D. Maltoch. SEA-TROUT FISHING 5. "Polly Perkins," a Welsh sewin pattern. Tag, gold twist; tail, tippet fibres ; body, bronze peacock herl, with coch-y-bondhu hackle at shoulder; wing, mottled fawn and brown peacock (the feather on the wing coverts) with small blue chatterer on the cheeks. 6. An Irish pattern. Tag, silver twist and light orange floss; tail, a small topping and blue chatterer ; body, light blue mohair, with bright blue hackle at shoulder; wing, a couple of the jay's blue-barred feathers. 7. *• The Harlequin." Tail, a whisk of teal; body, half orange and half apple -green floss, ribbed with silver wire, finished at shoulder with a black cock's hackle; wing, slices of starling's wing feather. I believe this is the invention of that most successful angler, Mr Ashley Dodd. Whether these or other simulacra of the unknown be employed, the prudent fisher will bring with him his own flies, tied on hooks and gut of trustworthy temper and toughness. The movements of a sea -trout when hooked are so rapid, its behaviour so violent, that the quality of the tackle is sure to be tested to the utmost. If you would avoid chagrin and the temptation to employ regrettable language, avoid also the tackle which one often sees exposed in the village ironmonger's or chemist's window in country towns. In such a position it is exposed to that which quickly destroys the texture of even the best of gut, namely sunshine, and the hooks are probably of cheap, and therefore treacherous, manu- facture. It cannot be too constantly carried in mind by the sea -trout fisher that, if he would escape disappointment, every article in his equip- ment must be of faultless quality. This is a convenient occasion for a word or two on the methods of weighing fish. Methods! quoth I — ^there is but one method entirely trust- worthy, namely, that practised by every honest grocer and tobacconist — the scales or steelyard. But the steelyard may be mislaid or left at home; it may even happen to the fortunate angler to land a fish of greater weight than his steelyard can record. It did so happen to Colonel Thornton, who landed an enormous pike in Loch Alvie, *' measuring from eye to fork five feet four inches."* " The weight of this fish," adds the Colonel, " judg- ing by the trones we had with us, which only weigh twenty-nine pounds, made us, according to our best opinions, estimate him at between forty - seven and forty-eight pounds. "f In such a case one may arrive within a *CoIonel Thornton's Sporting Tour in the Highlatidt (in 1786), chapter v. tThls estimate tallies pretty closely with the authentic record of the proportion of weight to length in the pike taken in Lough Romer, co. Cavan, in 1876, which measured 4 ft. 6^ in. long, 25 in. in girth, and weighed 37} lb. — See the Field, May 30, 1896. 99 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD few ounces of the correct weight of a large fish by means of the follow- ing scale prepared by Mr Edward Sturdy and published in the*' Fishing Gazette," the editor of which, Mr R. B. Marston, has kindly allowed me to reproduce it here : WEIGHTS OF SALMON OR TROUT FOR INCHES OF LENGTH, BASED ON THE SUPPOSITION THAT A SALMON OF 36 INCHES WEIGHS 20 LB., AND A TROUT OF 18 INCHES WEIGHS 2i LB. In. lb. 30 11-574 31 12770 32 14046 33 15-404 34 16-848 35 18-379 36 20 37 21-713 38 23-522 In. lb. oz. 9 0 5 10 0 7 11 0 9 12 0 12 13 0 IS 14 1 3 15 1 7 16 1 12 SALMON. In. lb. 39 25-428 40 27-435 41 29-544 42 31-759 43 34-082 44 36-516 45 39-063 46 41-725 47 44-506 TROUT. In. lb. oz. 17 2 2 18 2 8 19 2 15 20 3 7 21 4 0 22 4 9 23 5 3 In. lb. 48 47-407 49 50-432 50 53-584 51 ..... 56-864 52 60-274 53 63-819 54 67-500 55 71-320 In. lb. oz. 24 5 15 25 6 11 26 7 8 27 8 7 28 9 6 29 10 7 30 11 9 N.B. — The measurements must be made from end of snout to the end of the middle rays of the tail fin. A fish should not, in season, vary more than 15 per cent below the scale if not in very iood condition — to more than 15 per cent above the scale if exceptionally well fed. The ^reat majority of fish in jood condition and of normal shape will be very near the weights tfiven. One often hears anglers making exaggerated allowance for loss of weight in a fish which is not brought to the scales for some hours after it is taken from the water, so much being reckoned to have been lost 100 SEA-TROUT FISHING by drying and something more by bleeding. Believe it or not: a five-and- twenty pound salmon will not lose more than an ounce of blood, seldom as much, and as for drying ! I was grievously disappointed once when I brought a fine salmon home from the Willow Bush of Mertoun, on Tweedside. My old friend Goodfellow, patron boatman of that beat, weighing it on his scale, exclaimed, "Weil dune, mister! it's thirty pund and a wee bit to spare." Alas! when submitted to the dispassionate test of my host's scales at Newton Don, the fish could not be made to draw more than 29^ lb. The difference was in the instruments; it would be absurd to maintain that the fish had lost six or eight ounces in half as many hours. 101 TROUT-FISHING By the RIGHT HON. SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART. " The Trout makes the Angler most gentlemanly and readiest Sport of all other Fishes, if you angle with a made Fly and a line twice your Rod's length or more (in a plaine water without wood) of three Haires, in a dark windy Day from afternoone." William Lawson's "Secrets of Angling," 1614. "'^ NY angler who can recall the circumstances of the capture /^L of his first trout has it in his power to revive at will / ^^ one of the brightest images that enrich his halls of A^'^^^L memory. He may have enjoyed many subsequent X ^^ triumphs; he may have taken a double first — been .^A vL. successful in love, in war, in business — have won a hotly -contested election or have coaxed the coy Eritrichium nanum to unfold its azure necklace after a soaking English winter. For each of these prizes many good men have striven, and striven in vain; and none of those who have won them can have experienced the thrill of triumph without alloy that swells the heart of the lad who draws his first speckled beauty from the brook. Is this the language of hyperbole ? I trow not. It is a plain, unvarnished description of my own feelings when, at a very tender age, I followed the instruction of a faithful old keeper by dangling a worm under a bridge over a westland burn. The line tightened; the ensuing struggle was brief, for I fancy the tackle was none of the finest, the water being in spate; and in a minute or two the prize was kicking upon the wet sward. I care not what were the dimensions of this notable fish; even at the distance of more— considerably more — than half a century they do not loom very large; but who shall estimate the value of a jewel by its bulk ? I felt that I had been admitted to the rank of trout-fisher, and that fortune had no richer boon to bestow. I live be- side that burn now, and never dream of wetting a line in it, though the trout therein are as brisk and numerous as of yore; but as often as I cross that bridge do my thoughts fly back to the golden morn when I first traversed the gamut of desire, pursuit, conquest and possession. Trout-fishing has undergone a double revolution since that distant day. "Stewart's Practical Angler" was first published in 1857, opening the eyes of north-country anglers to the error of their method of fishing downstream for trout that lie with their heads upstream. Hitherto nobody 102 h D O H O z Q ^M 0^ H CO < X X 0U, Oh 3 o 0^ o Oh t Tl By ibc RS^il HON. SIR HERBERT M ^ - a ; r. <4>* m»kn Ih* An^er m«Ht ttatttmafAy an?! readfest Sport <^ y u»d fc a pUine water r^I, of .\ r>,(Hn£," 16R itnaiea ...v, .... •♦ .v« enjoyed many subscN. may have taken a double first — baM r. in business — have won a hotly -COMMMdi xtid the coy hium nanunt to •aiOkl fta MMh' ^v;;B4avconBi< ui i» viie. .ai loom vary large; but who &iiaii csl. ■'"* '^ " - »'%^fik ? I Mt that I had been admitted to the j i^n^ ' ^(TT»3tt.f had no richpr boon to bestow T I'va h^.- side that bum rt 'ream of _, a line in it, trout therein are as brisk and ni; ■; as of yore; but as often a that bridge do my thoughts fly back to the golden morn when I traversed the gamut of desire, pursuit, conquest and possessio' tVont-fishiog has .oiMlergone a double revolution f" ''^ -' dWr. •* Stewart's Prnrtlcn! Antftor'* wns first nsiMlTJu^ i north-co trout that lie with their httuU % TROUT-FISHING thought of fishing for trout in small streams except when these were swollen with rain. Stewart was the first to demonstrate the more difficult, but also more fascinating, craft of taking trout with the fiy in low, clear water. His principles were few and simple, consisting of the use of very fine tackle and small flies (chiefly dressed as spiders, that is, with feathers wound as hackles, and without wings), of casting the line up- stream and allowing the flies to float down. He maintained, and his doc- trine was soon confirmed in the experience of his disciples, that whereas one may get much nearer to a trout from behind than he can from in front, without alarming it, a light rod and short line enabled the angler fishing upstream to catch trout under conditions of water and weather which would prove prohibitive to one fishing downstream with a double-handed rod and a long line. Stewart applied to bait-fishing the same principle of working upstream, and devised the worm tackle which still bears his name, substituting three or four small hooks tied lengthwise on the gut to a single large hook formerly in use. Thereby he proved that trout could be taken with the worm in low, clear water, which had previously been deemed imprac- ticable. Adepts affirm, and I shall be among the last to doubt it, that low -water worm-fishing for trout is one of the most delicate and difficult branches of angling; but whereas the only precepts enunciated in these pages are founded upon personal practice, I must plead incompetence as an excuse for not describing it more in detail. Whether for salmon or trout — ^for good or for ill — I am a fly -fisher pure and simple, wherefore non ragionam di lor, mat guarda e passa. Stewart lived to see his innovations upon the ancient craft universally accepted in Scotland and northern England. Trout angling remains in that region very much as he left it at fifty years ago, albeit the reform which was about to affect the practice on south-country streams is now not without occasional exponents benorth the Tweed. That reform con- sists in casting a floating fly in a dry state upstream, over a trout whereof the exact position has been previously ascertained, instead of the old manner of "chuck-and-chance-it," i.e., fishing the whole stream on the chance of attracting what fish may be in it. Before discussing these different systems of fly-fishing for trout, the fish itself deserves a little attention in order to divest it of some of the confusion which has prevailed as to its true nature. The British freshwater trout is classified as Salmo fario\ but, relying 103 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD upon certain modifications of internal structure and external features, some ichthyologists have tabulated as many as twenty-four different species. Scientific opinion, however, has now veered in the direction of recognizing all the European non-migratory trout as more or less permanent varieties of the single species of Salmo fario. The term fario has no distinct significance; it is a word used by the late Latin writers Ausonius and Isidorus to designate a fish which was probably a trout. Were it not for the inconvenience of changing a name so long established, a far better title for this most protean of fishes would be Salmo variabilis, which was actually applied by Lunel to include the four forms — so-called species — of trout inhabiting Lake Constance. The distinctive features formerly relied on to indicate separate species have proved to be utterly untrustworthy. Take, for instance, the number of pyloric caeca, which are secreting appendages on the intestine. Parnell, Yarrell and Couch chiefly relied upon the superior number of these in the trout of Loch Leven as establishing that fine race as a species — Salmo ccecifer, and Dr Giinther distinguished it as S. levenensis; but their conclusion has been vitiated by the fact that the number of caeca in Loch Leven trout have been found to vary between forty -eight and ninety, and in trout from other Scottish waters between twenty-seven and sixty-nine. This variation is probably the result of diet, as the function of these appendages is sup- posed to be that of a supplementary pancreas. Where food is plentiful and rich, pyloric caeca will be found numerous, and correspondingly few when it is scarce and poor. Again, the spinal column might be supposed to be of a less variable character than organs composed of tissue; but even in this Dr Day found the number of vertebrae in British trout to vary from fifty-six to sixty.* As to external character, every angler is familiar with the difference in colour and shape exhibited by trout inhabiting different waters, or even different parts of the same water. In this connexion I may be permitted to quote what I have described elsewhere as coming under my own observation: **I possess a small lake, some five acres in extent, of exceedingly clear water supplied by springs. It has been formed out of an old marl pit, and about thirty [now nearly forty] years ago I introduced trout into it. The water being very rich in insect and crustacean life, the fish have thriven amazingly; but, owing to the absence of suitable running water, they are unable to fertilize the spawn which *Brituh and Irish Salmomda, p. 189. 104 TROUT-FISHING forms in their ovaries at tlie usual season. Accordingly I have kept up the stock by turning in trout nearly every year since the beginning; with this result, that whatever outward difference might be apparent in the fish at the time they were turned in, after two seasons, at most, it becomes absolutely impossible to tell from their external ap- pearance to what variety they originally belonged. Whether they had been small trout from a neighbouring stream, distinguished by conspicuous red spots, very distinct parr-markings and a. pre- dominance of yellow in their colouring, or other small trout much darker and less shapely from a more distant stream, or Loch Leven trout {Salmo levenensis of Gunther) — all assume, when in prime con- dition, a very silvery appearance, with not more difference among them than is apparent among sheep of the same flock. Fingerling trout which, if left in their native burn, would never have weighed a third of a pound, grow rapidly under the favourable conditions of this little loch to three and four pounds in weight. The deposit of guanin under the scales is so uniform as to supply a complete dis- guise; the parr -marks completely disappear; so do most or all of the red spots; and I have taken some which, had the loch possessed any practicable connexion with the sea, I should have pronounced without hesitation to be salmon-trout."* Among the varieties of British fresh -water trout there is none of which ichthyologists of the old school and anglers are so reluctant to surrender the specific rank as the great lake trout, classed as Salmo ferox. It was long considered to inhabit only certain deep lakes in the Highlands and in Ireland; but, in fact, there is a pool in the Test at Broadlands which receives a liberal supply of organic refuse from the town of Romisey, whence every season one, two or three monster trout are fished out with bait. I have seen several of these great trout weighing from 8 lb. up to 13 lb., any one of which was indistinguishable from Salmo ferox in a Highland loch. (See Plate IV, Fig. 1.) Exactly similar trout I have seen taken from the river Moratcha in Montenegro, flowing into the Lake of Skutari. They inhabit that great lake, feeding on shoals of scoranze, a species of bleak, just as salmon inhabit the ocean, feeding on shoals of herring. Like salmon when full fed, they ascend the rivers in spring and summer. I went to Podgoritza one April to try and catch some of these great trout, but it was too early 'Brilish Fresk-Water Fish (Woburn Library Series), p. 259. p 105 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD for any respectable mode of angling, as the water was still quite thick from the melting of the glaciers. But the natives were at work with long bamboos and huge lumps of lobworms, and during my brief stay two of these trout were taken by them, one weighing twenty kilograms (40 lb.), the other six kilograms (12 lb.).* Many have been the days I have spent in Achnacarry Forest. They are days of yore now, but I bear in kindly remembrance how indulgent was my host, the late Cameron of Lochiel, who murmured not when I pled to be excused going to the hill, and devoted day after day to pursuing the great trout of Loch Arkaig. One of these days proved very convincing as to the identity of the ferox and fario. I had spent two days without success, trolling phantom minnows behind the boat up and down that lovely loch. Only once had I touched a fish, a big fellow somewhere round about 10 lb. He made a wild run, threw himself high out of the water, and went free. The hooks of the beastly minnow had straightened. I did not feel satisfied that artificial minnows were as attractive to these deep-water monsters as natural baits might be; so next morning I caught a lot of small trout in the river and set forth in the afternoon with a couple of rods astern, each trailing a troutlet on spinning tackle. Just as we were shoving off, my host's son, the present Lochiel, ran down and begged to be taken aboard, and I gave the little chap one of the rods to hold. Strange to say, that happened to be the rod which was to do nearly all the execution. It was pretty rough that day, so that our boatman had had about enough of it by six o'clock, by which time we had taken five trout, weighing 17, 8, 5, 2^ and 2 lb. It would have baffled any fisherman to draw among these the line dividing /^roa: trora fario; and well it might, for scientific diagnosis now declares that there is no such line. The truth is that, though there is probably a maximum weight which trout may not exceed, there is no standard of dimension for this fish. Where the food supply is scanty, as in many British waters, especially in the north, the growth of trout is retarded, and they retain through life the marks and character of infancy — ^parr-marks, red spots, etc. The presence of so-called ferox among this dwarfed population may be accounted for by supposing that certain individuals have profited by exceptional luck in finding food, grown faster than the rest, and acquired a cannibal habit, devouring their own species. The same process may be observed among pike. There is a lake in front *I miued seeing the bigger of the«e fish, but I ate of the flesh of the smaller, which was just like salmon. 106 X X u o X < X b O z < z I— 1 < TROUT-FISHING of my house In Galloway swarming with pike; one may take a score in a day with spinning bait, if he is so minded, the vast majority being fish of from 4 to 6 lb. weight. A friend who was keen on that sport was de- lighted when he brought back a 17 pounder; but I had the curiosity to open that fish, and lo! its weight was straightway reduced to 15 lb., for it had in its belly one of its own race weighing 2 lb. The freshwater trout, then, may be considered a creature of circumstance, subject to variation in colour, size and structure under the influence of environment and food supply. In some vigorous varieties, such as the Loch Leven race, long isolation, coupled with abundant and stimulating diet, has imparted a degree of permanence to their peculiarities which is not apparent in those breeds which have to contend with less favour- able conditions and more frequent vicissitude. And, although in replenish- ing the stock of any stream or lake it is certainly desirable to import fish of a vigorous race, it should never be forgotten that abundant food is in- dispensable for the production of fine trout. Fish of the finest strains — Loch Leven, gillaroo or what not — introduced into hungry waters will never become or produce anything but starvelings, whereas starvelings from a hungry mountain burn brought into rich feeding ground will not only start away themselves into rapid growth, but become the parents of a creditable offspring. Having thus glanced at the nature of the creature which is the object of the trout-fisher's pursuit, the next matter for consideration is the manner of that pursuit. Fly-fishing for trout resolves itself into three main branches — (1) Stream -fishing with sunk fly; (2) Stream -fishing with fioating dry-fly; and (3) Lake-fishing. 1. Stream-fishing with sunk fly. Reference has been made above to the reform effected in this branch of trout-fishing by the late W. C. Stewart, author of the '* Practical Angler." His doctrine was specially ap- plicable to the smaller streams of northern England and Scotland, where- of the current is more rapid and broken than in the more evenly -flowing rivers of the Midlands and southern counties, and it met with general acceptance among anglers because of the reasonable and simple prin- ciples upon which it was based. Stewart argued that the nearer a fisher could get to his fish without being seen, the shorter would be the line he must cast to cover it, and the surer the chance of hooking it. As trout invariably lie with their heads upstream, the right way to approach them is from below. Next, when a trout so approached does rise, still 107 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD with its head upstream, the angler's " strike " is more likely to fix the hook in its mouth than when, standing higher up the stream than the fish, the tendency of the strike is to pull the fly out of its mouth. Lastly, when the upstream. fisher hooks a trout, he has the current in his favour in playing it, instead of against him, and there is less chance of the trout disturbing fresh water in its runs than if it had been hooked by one casting downstream. All this is so manifest and is now so generally recognized, that one may feel surprised that it was left for Stewart to discover, or at least to enunciate it for the first time. Why did the obvious advantage of upstream fishing never occur to Barker, Hawker, Sir Humphrey Davy, Tom Stod- dart, or any other of Stewart's innumerable predecessors in angling literature ? The only hint upon the subject that I have found is a sentence in Ronalds 's "Fly-fisher's Entomology," first published in 1836, to the following effect: **In brooks where fish are looking upstream for the flies and other food which float down to them, good sport is to be had in bright weather by walking up the middle and casting either fly or worm before you, especially where the water is broken, either by running over stones or by tumbling over ledges of rocks, etc., into little pools and basins. And observe, that fish cannot see behind them: all optics forbid it, especially when they are not looking out sharply." Twenty years had to run before the truth thus indicated by Ronalds was formulated by Stewart and recognized by the angling fraternity; but during those twenty years, and for twice twenty years to follow them, the number of anglers continued to increase so rapidly and facilities of access to angling waters became so greatly improved, that trout ceased to be the simple, easily-deluded creatures with which our forefathers used to supplement their fare, and have now developed into some of the wariest animals of the chase. In all small and moderately sized streams, therefore, it is advisable to adopt upstream fishing. It is more laborious, because the line has to be cast more frequently; but it is also a more delicate art; the files must be placed on the water with greater accuracy, and fishing with a short line upstream has this advantage over working downstream with a long line, that a fish rising at the fiy can be seen before it is felt. In fishing large rivers there is less need for concealment on the angler's part; the breadth and depth of the water help to keep him out of sight; 108 i % n ■\: $ I i I X (A < z i/3 TROUT-FISHING but even so, the natty upstream fisher will pull many a good trout out of side rills and runs near the bank which the downstream fisher would pass by untried. These remarks apply chiefly to streams in a low state. When the water is high and stained with peat, which fishers of the old school considered indispensable to success, trout lose their excessive shyness, and may be taken quite readily upon flies cast downstream. Thomson, poet of "The Seasons," and a Tweedside angler, well knew how to take advantage of such conditions. Now, when the first foul torrent of the brooks Swelled with the vernal rains is ebbed away. And, whitening down the mossy-tinted stream, Descends the billowy foam — now is the time. While yet the dark brown water aids the guile, To tempt the trout. The well-dissembled fly, The rod, fine-tapering with elastic spring. Snatched from the hoary steed the floating line, And all thy slender wat'ry stores prepare. Under such conditions, indeed, it is easy to fill a basket from a well- stocked stream; but the finished craftsman derives more satisfaction from such spoil as he may seduce from clear waters under sunny skies. A word about the trout-fisher's outfit. First, as to the rod. Every tackle- maker's catalogue contains descriptions of double-handed trout-rods fourteen feet long; one may even occasionally see one of these in use; but for the life of me I cannot divine what purpose they are intended to serve which may not be effected equally well, and with more comfort to the fisher, by using a single-handed rod nine feet or so in length. No trout that swims in British waters, and can be persuaded to rise to a small fly, will prove too powerful for such a rod. Of course the longer the rod, within due limits, the longer is the line that may be cast; but, except on the shore of a boatless loch, when and where need one wish to cast further than he can with a nine footer ? One such rod I purchased five -and -twenty years ago, a neat split-cane when split-canes were some- what of a novelty. It consists of two joints only, with a bayonet fastening, and although I have seldom used any other trout rod since I got it, I am ashamed to say that it has only been back to the tackle shop once, and that was to get a coat of green paint to dull the glitter of varnish. Yet it has been put to rough work in its time: it has landed a Test trout of 6 lb. 109 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD on the dry fly, hundreds of lusty sea-trout, and on one memorable occa- sion in a West Highland loch it brought ashore a salmon of 7 lb. and a yellow trout on the same cast. My old friend, Charles Barrington, author of ** Seventy Years' Fishing," who has passed away while I am inditing these pages, with whom and others I formerly shared the Avington water on the Itchen, used to stalk up and down the meadows beside that fair stream carrying a single- handed rod; but he was attended by a servant carrying a double-handed one, which, at this distance of time, appears to have been of prodigious length. I never saw him do execution with it; but I understand that it enabled him occasionally to put a fly artistically over a rising fish on the far side of the river, which a shorter rod would not have covered without causing the fly to drag. Having spoken of split-cane salmon rods in terms somewhat short of eulogy, I have nothing but praise for that as material for a trout rod, especially for dry-fly work, which exacts the utmost precision in casting. No more perfect instrument could be placed in a trout -fisher's hand than a nine -foot split -cane by a good maker who has a reputation to lose; but beware of cheap manufacture in which the cane has been sawn, instead of rent, into the segments with which such rods have to be built up. No such good maker will allow a rod to leave his establishment unless it is built of cane well seasoned before it is rent and stored for several months after the segments have been glued together to allow the glue to set. There prevails some difference of opinion as to the merits of a steel centre in these rods. I have no hesitation in pronouncing in favour of the same, because it reduces the chance of a broken top to a minimum, and fracture of a split-cane rod is irreparable. A sharp knife and adhesive tape suffice to splice a broken greenheart by the waterside; but for a broken split-cane there is no remedy but a new joint. In testing the action of rods before they are finished the maker of a rod in greenheart or any other solid wood can remedy inequality of play by paring down those parts which are too stiff. This is impossible in the manufacture of the split-cane article, because the strength of cane is in its outer skin, which must therefore be kept intact. If the trial proves any joint to be too rigid for the rest, it must be laid aside and a new one provided, for the limber joint or joints may not be shortened to bring them into play with the rest owing to the fancy of customers who require all the joints of a fly rod to be of the same length. > X X a I OS Q U O O X TROUT-FISHING It Is evident, therefore, that a good split -cane rod cannot be sold at less than about three times the price of one made of solid wood. He who is inclined to hesitate at the extra initial cost should reflect that he is getting honest value for his money and obtaining an article that, with decent care, will last far longer than he will himself. I made just now the confession that my favourite trout rod has been with the maker only once during the five-and-twenty years it has served me. This is an example of how not to treat a good article. Every other year, at least, a split -cane rod should be overhauled by a skilled hand; for the varnish is sure to crack and split off sooner or later, leaving the glue, upon which the cohesion of the segments depends, open to the destructive action of wet. An old rod well varnished is a token that it belongs to a thoughtful owner; but in trout -fishing, especially in clear chalk streams, varnish puts the angler to some disadvantage by its glitter. Often one may detect from afar another, and it may be a rival, fisherman by the gleam of sun- light on his rod. It is not seldom that warning is conveyed to a rising trout by the same means. To obviate this, when I used to fish the Test and Itchen I had the varnish overlaid with pale green paint, which made my rod as like as possible to *' a reed shaken by the wind." 2. Stream-fishing with floating dry-fly. Upstream casting had been practised for a considerable time in northern waters before it was re- gularly adopted in the trout streams of the southern counties, which are of a very different character. If a typical Scottish trout -stream, say the Blackadder, or any one of the innumerable ** burns " — anglice brooks — ^which meander through Lowland scenery, be compared with a chalk stream like the Test or Itchen, they seem to possess but one feature in common, namely, that the water in both runs down hill. But in other respects they bear little resemblance to each other. The northern stream consists of alternate rippling shallows, brawling rapids and deep, often rocky, pools. A few hours' heavy rain may convert an insignificant rivulet into a roaring torrent, which, when the rain stops, subsides almost as quickly as it rose. The chalk stream, on the other hand, has an even flow level with its banks, swift in places, but preserving a glassy surface. Most of the channel is deep in proportion to its breadth; when the current spreads over shallow fords it does so in an easy, leisurely manner, quite different from the rush and rattle of a north country burn. The water is crystal clear, disclosing — here stretches of bright gravel — ^there waving 111 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD tresses of weed. Its volume never varies more than a few inches during the fishing season; it depends, not upon summer rain, but upon that of the foregoing winter, which, soaking into the chalk, is steadily distilled from that mighty reservoir throughout the months of drought; so that a true chalk stream is never " out of order " in summer, unless it be discoloured for a few hours by a thimder plump sending in road- washings. Another important difference between northern and southern trout streams is this: whereas in the northern waters trout are usually hungrier than their southern kinsmen, and consequently may be induced to rise at the artificial fly at times when the natural insect is not on the water, in a chalk stream one must wait till the fly begins to rise — ^that is, when the aquatic *' nymph," intermediate between larva and imago, comes to the surface and undergoes the wonderful metamorphosis from a water - breathing to an air-breathing creature. Until that takes place, the angler may pass the time not unpleasantly in studying the myriad beauties of bird, insect and flower which so lavishly enrich these southern valleys; but he should scan the stream pretty frequently, for so soon as the fly shows on the water, the serious business of the day begins. It is difficult to describe the nature of that business and the manner of its transaction without becoming intolerably prosy. Izaak Walton's sense of literature was delicate enough to warn him against that; ac- cordingly he cast his instruction into the form of colloquy between the docile Venator and the adept Piscator, introducing sundry subordinate characters — ^the Milkmaid, Coridon and others — ^to enliven the lesson. The device was so charmingly executed that it was adopted by a whole host of imitators. Richard Franck himself, Izaak's relentless critic, dis- dained not to take that leaf out of his great rival's book; it became the standard form of angling literature, and very tiresome, too, in hands less skilful than those of the masters of the craft. Perhaps the simplest, as it is the easiest plan, is to dive into the recesses of memory, reviving the incidents of a typical day with the dry fly; for although I can lay claim to no more than moderate proficiency in this branch of angling, I have had the advantage of fishing in the company of such adepts as Sir Edward Grey and Mr A. N. Gilbey, and of vainly emulating the consummate performance of these artists. Let us then imagine Piscator setting out upon that part of the Itchen which skirts Avington Park as far down as the old brick bridge at Itchen 112 TROUT-FISHING Abbas. It is half-past ten on a cloudless morning in the sweet o' the year — say the first week of June. A faint southerly current of air, not enough to be termed a breeze, sufficing only to waft the mingled fragrance of may -blossom, clover and bean-flowers — ^the incense peculiar to English summertide — and scarcely ruffling the surface of the glassy reach above the mill. On such a day the sunk fly might as well be plied on a turnpike road as in a chalk-stream; but sunlight, be it never so full and flaring, has no terrors for the dry-fly man; all he has to dread is a strong wind downstream and the absence of natural flies to set the fish on the move. Piscator, having escaped from the stifling atmosphere of London by an early train, and disposed of an excellent breakfast at the Plough Inn, puts together his two-jointed, nine-foot split-cane and, tremulous with anticipation, runs the thin but heavy silk line up the rings. To this he attaches two yards — ^no more^^f fine gut, and then pauses to ponder upon the choice of a fly. This is a far more important question than it is in salmon-fishing or in north-country trout-fishing; for these Hampshire fish are worldly-wise, schooled so long in suspicion that their wariness has become hereditary. Moreover they inhabit such a limpid medium that nothing but the most exact imitation of a natural insect may stand their scrutiny. As yet, however, there is no fly on the water; wherefore P. decides in favour of a red quill, which is perhaps as useful a general fly as can be named. Trout sometimes show a preference for it or the iron blue, even when olive duns or some other natural fly is rising thickly. Certain experts — Sir Edward Grey for one— disdain to assist the flota- tion of the fly by anointing it; humble practitioners cannot afford to forgo any expedient that may lessen the difficulty of floating a ooo hook over a nervous fish. Some of them hang a little bottle of paraffin to a button of the waistcoat, wherein to dip the fly immediately before using it. Not so Piscator, who has discovered for himself the secret that flies, once oiled and dried, remain permanently waterproof; so that all his stock have been anointed days — ^weeks — it may be months before. Grossing the bridge to the left bank of the river, Piscator prowls stealthily up beside the stream. Ephemerids usually make their appear- ance at any time between 10.30 a.m. and 2.30 p.m., seldom earlier or later, except the mayflies which, during their brief festival, set the ordinary daily time-table at defiance. Howbeit the mayfly does not now inhabit this part of the Itchen. Piscator anxiously scans the water for the Q 113 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD first symptoms of a hatch of a humbler form of ephemerid — ^the duns. As yet there is no movement on the surface, save in yonder cushion of half -submerged weed where a nice trout is "tailing" — ^that is, nosing out crustacean delicacies from the green tangle. A broad tail -fin shining orange -tawny in the sunlight — a flash from a silvery flank — ^betoken a two -pounder in prime condition; but Piscator knows that a tailing fish can never be tempted by a floating fly. A sunk palmer may sometimes lure such a fish to its doom; but Piscator is out for sport, not for the pot, and passes on. Sometimes a chance is offered of anticipating the rise of fly, and of such Piscator presently attempts to avail himself. There is a goodly trout lying on the far side of the stream, not rising indeed, for there is nothing to tempt him to do so, but poised midway between the surface and the bottom, evidently on the outlook for what the current may bring his way. The position is not an easy one, for it will take a longish cast to cover the fish, between which and the fisher the stream runs broad and strong, though smooth. P. is no novice; nevertheless he cannot quite repress the tremor of excitement caused by the sight of his game. Rapidly waving his rod to and fro, he switches out line to the necessary length, and succeeds in depositing the tiny fly a couple of yards above the fish. It floats down, nicely cocked — ^nothing could be more perfect — ^when, just as it comes within a couple of feet of the trout's nose, the line bags in midstream, dragging the fly out of its course; the fish takes alarm and sinks slowly to the bottom, sidling off into cover of the weeds. That trout has been " put down," and no more time need be spent over him. P. resumes his prowl, and has not travelled far before he detects a float- ing dun, then another, followed by a little flotilla of three or four. The rise is on. Twenty yards above him, close to the near bank, his quick eye detects a dimple on the surface such as an able-bodied water -beetle might make in rising to replenish its pipes with air. A north country fisherman, unused to the ways of chalk-stream trout, even if he recog- nized this slight disturbance as being caused by a fish, would pronounce it to be so small a one as not to merit attention. But P. knows better. Experience has taught him how different is the furtive rise and stealthy sip of a south -country two -pounder from the headlong dash and plunge of a Scottish trout, and, recognizing that his chance has come, he pre- pares to take full advantage thereof. This fish, be it great or small, is an 114 TROUT-FISHING "easy" one — ^that is, it lies close to the near bank, and therefore directly above the angler, so that there is no chance of the fly dragging, which is the evil that besets one casting a longish line athwart a full stream. Measuring the distance to a nicety, P. once more switches out the right length of line; then pauses before delivering it till the trout, rising once more betrays its exact position. Ha! there he is again. This time he poked the tip of a broad snout half an inch above the surface. Ex pede Herculem — he is a two-pounder for sure. Out goes the line, a gentle movement of the wrist checks it at the moment of extension, causing the fly to drop as lightly as a snow-flake six feet above the fish. The duns are floating down more thickly now; the artificial sails among half a dozen naturals right over the fish, which rises and sucks down one of the latter. P. re- covers his line and times his second essay for the interval which gener- ally separates the little companies of duns. Then he pops his red quill over the fish as nearly as before; this time it has no living competitors; exactly at the same spot there comes the most trifling stir in the water, P. raises his rod point smartly and — ^bir-r-r-r goes the reel as the trout dashes wildly into mid channel and twenty yards upstream. Note that if the angler's finger had been upon the line at this moment as, in salmon- fishing it ought to have been, the fine gut-cast would almost infallibly have snapped under the sudden strain. More disasters happen to be- ginners in dry-fly fishing from this cause than from any other; for although a chalk -stream trout does not fight for life half so long or so wildly as do natives of the colder waters of Scotland or Scandinavia, the terrified rush when first hooked is about as trying to nerve and hand as any incident in any kind of angling. Once tide that over, and it is surprising how soon a south-country trout will succumb. Piscator was equal to the occasion, handling his fish very delicately during the initial flurry; but the trout's next move was a more danger- ous one. Turning suddenly, it dashed downstream past the angler, so swiftly that reeling up was impossible; to keep the line taut he had to haul in the slack with his hand. Next, having run downstream some distance, the trout turned again as quickly as before and buried itself in a thick blanket of weeds. There was only one course to follow now, and Piscator took it, knowing that the manoeuvre which fills a beginner with despair is not half so dangerous as it looks. In a lake where weeds lie all sorts of ways, it is almost impossible to extract a heavy fish that has run to them for refuge; but in a full-flowing stream the weed-tresses are all neatly 115 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD combed in one direction, and it requires little experience to prove how necessary it is to work with the grain. Instead of standing still and tug- ging helplessly at the imbedded trout, Piscator moves down to a point below where it lies, keeping a steady, gentle strain on the line. For a minute or so nothing happened: the trout may have freed itself, leaving the hook fast in the weeds. Ha! there is a movement; a sullen tug — ^then another; slowly the fish yields to the steady pressure, and presently is swimming in the open, whence the landing net soon scoops it ashore.* A pretty fish it is, with a small head set on thick shoulders, and a beauti- ful bloom on its finely rounded flanks. It pulls the index down to lib. 12 oz. The rise of duns is fairly on by this time, and trout are well on the feed. There is a stretch of swiftish shallows above where Piscator has landed his first trout, in which a nuraiber of fish are moving, chiefly small fellows under or just over the takeable limit of one pound; so, knowing how soon and suddenly the rise may cease, he passes quickly forward to where a dense grove of alders screens a favourite haunt of big trout. Here the river, dammed by a weir and hatch to feed a sawmill, is still, deep and clear — so clear that the pool has been dubbed the Aquarium, because it is so easy to see the fish therein. Easy to see, but not very easy to catch, for- asmuch as their too visible presence has such a fascination for anglers as to cause the Aquarium to be more sedulously fished than any other part of the Avington water, with the result that its inhabitants have at- tained a keen sense of discrimination and very highly strung nerves. Howbeit, here as elsewhere, trout must feed, and when the food is on the surface, to the surface they will come. The fly on the water is a pale olive dun, to which the red quill on Pis- cator's line bears resemblance only in its form; in colour it is several shades darker and more fiery. He hesitates whether to change to a closer imitation, but time is precious. He decides to try the red quill before dis- carding it, and the result proves that he is right; for, by the time he has reached the waggon bridge which marks the top of the pool — about 100 yards from the foot — the bag on his shoulder is several pounds heavier than when he started. We need not follow him any further this morning, for the manoeuvres in approaching a rising trout vary only in accordance with its position, the strength of the stream and the nature of the river bank. *There is no foundation in fact for the fable that a trout can anchor itself by holding on to the weeds with its teeth. 116 TROUT-FISHING Mention of the Aquarium revives a couple of personal reminiscences connected with it. The first refers to an incident which, laughable as it may and does seem now, provoked certain expletive comments at the time which will not bear setting forth in type. I was then an assistant Whip in the House of Commons, and, my party being in office, Saturday was the only day on which I could escape to the waterside, Sunday being dies non for fishers on the Itchen. This restriction added an almost painful zest to the sport. A strong north-east wind careering downstream sometimes proved calamitous; but on the occasion referred to all was most favour- able. How well I remember that July morning — ^traversing the empty, sunlit streets in a hansom (taxis were not yet even a dream of the future) to catch the 6 a.m. at Waterloo — ^two blessed hours and a half in the train and a ravenous onslaught on the eggs and home -baked at the lowly Plough.* I received a shock, however, on landing at the wayside station. The roads of the Itchen valley had been chosen as the scene of summer manoeuvres; a large camp had been pitched in Avington Park; the country lanes resounded under the wheels of transport and artillery; the movements of columns of infantry and squadrons of cavalry accounted for clouds of dust far and near; our once tranquil valley was full of noise. Now I trust that I may be credited with a fair share of patriotic spirit, nor was I insensible to the picturesque aspect of the occasion, for this happened before our gallant defenders had been clothed in khaki from head to heel. If anything could have indemnified me for interruption of the country calm, it was the glorified presence of a battalion of Gordon Highlanders marching through the village with pipes skirling and phila- begs swinging. Finding that part of the river had been marked off for the troops to bathe in, I hied away to the Aquarium, trusting to be able to pursue my vocation in peace in that secluded spot. Disappointment lay in wait for me here also; and disappointment is all too mild a term to describe my feelings when the first thing that met my gaze was the shining head of a fellow creature swimming right down the middle of the pool. Hailing him, I told him he had no business there — ^that the place allotted for the men to bathe was so-and-so. ** I'm not a man, I'm an officer," was the haughty response flung to *Which has now blossomed forth into a smart little hotel, with parage, shell spirit and all the rest of it. But I'll warrant that the eg^s are no fresher nor the home-baked more nutty in flavour than of yore. 117 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD me from midstream; and unless I had run off with the gentleman's clothes, I had no means of reprisal. I refrained from doing so, though they lay in tempting disarray under the alders, and returned to the Plough without having discovered a yard of water where fishing had not been rendered impossible. Sore, and perhaps sulky, at the time, I admit that the scenes of that day remain more brightly impressed on memory than the ordinary course of a morning's fishing would be likely to be. The other incident referred to as connected with the Aquarium took place late in the season when the members of our little fishing club (six in number*) were allowed to take a friend to fish. It was early in Sep- tember (our fishing closed on the 15th) when Mr Ashley Dodd came down with me. Each taking a stretch of water, we agreed to meet for luncheon at the Aquarium. Fish were rising capriciously that day, as is their wont towards autumn. I forget what I brought back with me to the trysting place — ^whether one brace or two; whatever it was, Mr Dodd had twice as many. I asked him what they had been taking. "Oh," said he, "I soon gave up the small flies; I got them with this" — showing me a hideous great red palmer with two hooks dressed tandem. "You have been working the hatch-holes, I suppose," quoth I, dis- dainfully. *• Not I," said he; **I got all my fish in the open stream. I always put on this when they refuse a floating fly." Now there was a good trout stationed over against where we lay on the bank; not rising, for there was nothing to rise at, but poised in a very attractive way. I had passed a red quill over him thirty or forty times before luncheon without eliciting the slightest recognition; no, not the quiver of a fin. '* Put your abomination over that one," said I, *' and see whether he will notice it." Mr Dodd let out a long line and, throwing the palmer several yards above the trout, allowed it to come past him, well sunk, with a lively jerk- ing motion. At the first offer the trout woke up at once, dashed at the palmer, missed it, and returned to poise. The second time he seized it and was soon landed — 2 lb. I confess that I have never been quite so keen about dry-fly fishing since witnessing this as I was before. If Itchen trout (and there are none that "The late Earl of Northbrook, Sir Edward Grey, Hon. C. Mill* (now Lord Hillin(don), the late Mr Bonham Carter, the late Mr Charles Barrinjton and myself. 118 < .J a. Z a > X u o o C/2 TROUT-FISHING it is more difficult to outwit) can be taken by such coarse means, wliy should one put himself to infinite pains with floating flies and gossamer gut. The zest — ^the crowning charm — of dry-fly fishing is weakened, if it is not destroyed, when it is demonstrated that chalk- stream trout can be conquered in bright weather by other and less delicate tactics. But when all is said and done, there is no question that there is no branch of fly-fishing to compare in difficulty and delicacy with the dry fly. Not that the difficulty is greater than can be overcome by anybody who is fairly proficient with the wet fly. The easiest way to acquire the knack is to start when the mayfly is up. I had the luck to do so on May 20, 1893. Not only had I never fished dry before, but I had never seen any- body do so, but, having a general idea of what should be the proceed- ing, I managed to extract from the Test at Broadlands two brace of trout weighing 7^ lb. This gave the novice confidence. Next day was Sunday: on Monday morning I went out again and the very first fish I landed was the heaviest brown trout I have ever killed on the fly. It weighed 6 lb. — a clear case of duffer's luck. It is uncertain when dry-fly fishing first became recognized as a regular branch of the craft. The earliest explicit reference thereto which I have come across is in Pulman's "Vade-mecum of Fly-fishing,"* as follows: " When the state of the atmosphere is favourable for the produc- tion of flies, they come down in swarms, and the fish, in order to seize them the more easily, station themselves close under the surface, gently lifting their noses to catch them as they sail over. Now it is impossible to make a soaked artificial fly swim upon the water as the natural flies do; so that, when cast by the angler to a fish thus occu- pied, it very commonly escapes his notice, engaged as he is at the surface. This is plain, because, if the wet and heavy fly be exchanged for a light and dry one and passed in artistic style over the feeding fish, it will be taken in nine cases out of ten, as greedily as the living insect itself. We admit, however, that to ensure this, imitation of the predominant species is required; opining that if the dry fly be widely different as regards size and colour, the fish will be surprised and startled at the novelty presented, and suspend feeding." Here, had the necessity for casting upstream been insisted on, we 'Lonfmao'i, 2iid edition, 1846. 119 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD should have had the whole mystery of dry-fly fishing explained in a single paragraph. Writing twenty years later in his "Book on Angling," Francis Francis lays down that "the angler should never fish downstream if he can by any possibility fish up." He had studied and profited by Stewart's treatise; but, although Francis's excellent volume contained 472 pages, a single one of these sufficed for all he had to say about the dry fly; although in the preceding page he describes taking four brace of large trout from Lord Portsmouth's water on the Test with a wet fly deeply sunk. He refers to the dry fly as being " at times an invaluable method, whereby trout may be killed on fine, bright days when the wet fly would be almost useless." Evidently he was speaking only of the old pattern of trout -fly fished dry, not of the kind specialized for fioating with cocked wings. This is not carrying the matter much further than did i^lianus the Honey tongued, who, writing about a hundred years after the birth of Christ, described very graphically the mode of fly-fishing practised in the rivers of Greece, and even gave particulars as to the material used in tying the flies. In those streams where the mayfly cometh, it was the practice to fish with the natural insect " blowing " — that is, floating it out on the breeze with a line of floss silk. That, of course, was fishing dry; but it is curious how long it was before fishermen seem to have bethought them of fishing with the artificial mayfly dry. Thus in the " Chronicle of the Houghton Fishing Club, 1822-1908," which I had the pleasure of editing for the members, the first mention of a trout taken with artificial mayfly occurs on June 6, 1888, on which day, of eight trout weighing 17 lb. 7 oz. killed by Lord Moreton, one is specified as having been so taken, the rest apparently having been caught "blowing." The trout streams of the Southern and Midland English counties fall into two classes — ^those wherein the mayfly abounds, and those where it is not known. It has disappeared from some rivers and parts of rivers which it inhabited in former years. The reason for this is hard to divine, though probably it is the result of excessive weed -cutting and removal of silt from the channels. The mayfly is never seen now in the Itchen above Abbot's Worthy, though it would not be surprising if some day it were to re -appear there in its pristine abundance.* *I do not think I have ever seen the true mayfly {Ephemera damiea) in Scotland, though I have been assured that it exists there, and Richard Franck in his Northern Memoirs (1651) writes of the green and grey drake in that country. When Tweedside 68hernien talk of the mayfly, they mean the stonefly {Perla bipunctata), a totally different insect. 120 TROUT-FISHING In the records of the Houghton Fishing Club above referred to there is apparent a remarkable alteration of periods of dearth and abundance both of mayfly and grannom in the Stockbridge water of the Test. Thus, while in 1848, mayfly is described as *' plentiful," in the following year the scarcity is referred to as '* such as has been seldom witnessed, and is not wished for again." This was the beginning of a few lean seasons; it is noted on June 11, 1853, that "the fly is quite over, if that can be said to be over which has hardly appeared at all," but on the same date in 1855 (after the Crimean winter) mayfly are recorded as rising *• abundantly." Another contrast is shown between the year 1882 when, on June 6, Colonel Seymour Corkran killed eight trout, weighing 19^ lb. (heaviest 5 lb. 9 oz.), '* blowing " natural mayfly, and the year 1908 when, for the first time in the annals of the Club, not a single fish was taken on the mayfly owing to nearly a complete absence of the insect.* As to the advantage of having this beautiful ephemerid in a trout stream, anglers are not unanimous. Probably the position is this — ^those who have it in their waters would be sorry to lose it; those who have not got it are quite content to do without it. The fact is that, although the stimulating and abundant food provided by this insect increases the average weight of trout, and tempts to the surface large fish which never come there except when the mayfly is on, rendering the sport very exciting while it lasts, the rise seldom extends over a fortnight, and is followed by weeks of languor and repletion during which trout can hardly be induced to look at any fly. It would be surprising if they could, by reason of the pro- digious quantity of this stimulating diet that they have consumed. Some years ago Mr Holland Hibbert of Munden landed with the mayfly in a single day 85 trout, weighing 120 lb., from the Gade at Cassiobury. Probably no one else has equalled this weight of British trout in a day's fly-fishing. He examined the contents of the stomach of one of these trout — a two- pounder, and found therein no fewer than 980 mayflies, entire or partially digested. To allow half this total as the average consumption of these 85 trout brings out the astonishing total of 41,650 mayflies, which, one should think, is a smart tax even upon Nature's prodigality, preparing the mayfly as she does for two or three days of aerial existence by as many years' immurement of the larvae in river mud. Quite apart from its effect upon the fishing, the mayfly carnival is a season of delight for every lover of country sights and sounds. The 'The total hai for that season was 829 trout, weighing 1,632} lb.; and 34 jraylinj, weljblDg 65i lb. R 121 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD dancing clouds of brief-lived flies attract many predatory creatures besides trout. Wagtails, swifts and all the swallow tribe, finches, star- lings, blackbirds, thrushes, and even rooks and gulls seem to lose their heads in the revelry; the river banks present one long-drawn pageant of sunlit massacre. The festival ceases with the precarious honeymoon. Before the summer solstice the passionate dancing of the males has ceased — ^their brides of a day have dropped their eggs on the water — ^the surface of which is thickly strewn in the backwaters with the corpses of both sexes, known among fishermen as *' spent " or "burnt gnat." The trout, gorged by the frantic orgies they have shared, sink into lethargy, indifferent to whatever swarms of delicate duns may float over them; only an odd one here and there may be tempted by a Wickham Fancy or, of an evening, by a Sedge. It is at midsummer that the merit of a stream with no mayfly is apparent; for although trout in all south-country waters seem to lose some of their zest for surface feeding as the dog-days draw near, there is always some- thing to be done among those that have not been debauched by the mayfly surfeit. In July and August the gloaming is sometimes a useful hour. Wind- less warmth brings out the sedges and the big trout come to the surface after them; but the evening rise is always an elusive chance. A mourn- ful angler has entered in the Houghton Club chronicle that "there has been no evening rise for two years." At best, it is a feverish delight, as he must admit who, wrestling with a tangled casting line or replacing a lost fly in the waning light, hears the suck and sob of a three -pounder, knowing that in fifteen minutes the last gleam on the water will be quenched. No; a shining noontide with fleets of floating duns (" picket wings " as they call them on the Test) is what the dry-fly fisher has learnt to pray for as the best that fortune can bestow. No sooner had dry-fly fishing become established as a recognized branch of sport than there ensued a rivalry between its practitioners and the old wet -fly school, of whom they spoke slightingly as the " chuck - and-chance-it " people. Admitting that dry-fly practice is the utmost refinement to which angling can be, or has been, brought — ^that it re- quires far more skill to detect and stalk a two -pounder in crystal clear water, to bring the fly over him without the slightest " drag," and to land him on a OOO hook and gossamer gut, than is required to kill a flsh of equal weight with stronger tackle in a swollen northern river, coloured 122 > X X H < X u o Q >^ u o .-3 o z l-H Q dAndng clouds of bti«f besides ? 8wiift$ and all the bw UngH, hJaciiOu ■ I ^ulifi at b^&ads in ihe ru^viiji , «.uv- < ivci u «v- yi-thelr brides > i a day have ii rv the water—- the siufaee of strewn !n 1' orgkatbrr •t-5v,* tiy-!i#'».i :Tt-*T ?nfv>tf.fh , ...jMffer*.:.. . ,. of de» y an odd one here and x ha te .in evening, by a Sedj^e. It Is at that the irn with no mayfly Is apparent; for to lose some o: "u T^ . V uifiii , there is always Homc« 'rfinstt • t>*«Q debauched h^ ^"^'^ mtw^v t* bff t: out come to the u i,\m <^M|^vi itiAS enic; ■ .0 cuioiuczc. laiti uoexc been no oxrriina t Ui, ' . . „^, it is a feveri?»^ -^-'^'i^.ht, must at* ^r^«H> ?.ntUe(l casting line ^aaci lost t xk and sob of a three -poun n fifnMSi miotttas the last fileam on the water \ ting duiw UtTOit* yft amy tu\ uu urn 1 ci>i; i3 waai uie uiy-iiy flsher ha& lea: CO pray f»r aa t^. .....; that fortune can bestow. No aooaar had dry-tly fishing become eatabtished as a rerod branch ot sport than there ensued a rivalry between its prii and the old wet - fly schoo ' > om they sjyokc slightingly as the and-chaoce-it '* people. AUtiiuttlng that dry>fiy, pra. reftaement to which angling can be, or has been, bro: iore skill to detect and stalk a two>pouoder ^,«^ Ing the fliy over Irim without the sWtffrtei*? •* ch I 000 hook and goaaamie ••^t with stronger UitkU TROUT-FISHING like porter — it must also be admitted that there are times and condi- tions for both methods. It would be as idle to fish with a dry red quill in the Tay or Blackadder in spate as it would be to exhibit a cast of Heckum-peckum, March Brown and Yellow-and-Teal on a summer day to the nervous inhabitants of Abbot's Worthy or Stockbridge water. But there are times when the dry fly will ensure success even in the larger rivers of the north that might be denied to the most sidlful fisher with the wet fly. Let us, as fly-flshers, be catholic in our judgment, if not in our tastes. It is somewhat strange that the ultra -advocates of dry-fly, while extolling the superior delicacy and science required for their craft, have never, so far as I have heard or read, employed the strongest argument of all in its favoiir, namely, that whereas the wet-fly fisher presents to the fish what he calls " flies," and makes them perform subaqueous leaps and bounds such as no living fly could execute, the dry-fly man has not only to simulate the exact form and, as is generally believed, the colour of the natural insect, but has to let the current give it precisely the same motion as the floating creature would have. Let us leave it at this — ^the object and purpose of a fly-fisher being to catch fish, he is the best practical angler who adapts his procedure — wet or dry, sunk or floating — to the conditions of wind, water and weather, and the dry-fly fisher has to overcome greater difficulties in this respect than the wet-fly fisher. 3. — Lake fishing for trout. The charm of lake -fishing differs from that of stream-fishing in the same degree as lake scenery differs from river scenery. There is less variety in it; indeed the ordinary method of fly- fishing in a loch — casting from a boat allowed to drift slowly — is apt to suffer from monotony. On the other hand, it has attractions which many streams are without. The trout in a Scottish or Irish lake are likely to be of greater size and superior condition compared with those in the neighbouring streams. There is more mystery in a lake than in a river; the angler's imagination is stirred by visions of the monsters that may inhabit its depths. There seems always a chance of getting hold of something beyond ordinary strength and weight, and most men who have done much lake -fishing have had that fancy fulfilled. But the outward aspect of a lake is no guide to the number or average size of the trout therein. Where a mountain loch is fed by numbers of hill burns affording unlimited spawning-ground it may contain nothing but 123 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD swarms of pigmy trout, whereas the most unprom^ising tarn may pro- duce two- and three -pounders. Everything depends on the food supply. In lakes where trout are able and allowed to multiply without check or stint, there is seldom enough natural food to enable the multitude to obtain more than enough to sustain life. They live and die as pigmies, re- taining to the last those lateral stripes known as parr-marks, which are the distinctive badge of adolescence among salmon and trout. There is no more certain sequence of effect upon cause than the increase of average weight resulting from reduction of numbers in an overstocked lake. This is very clearly shown in the returns from Loch Leven, the most pro- ductive sheet of water in Great Britain.* Those for the last three seasons compare as follows, and a similar proportion of numbers and average weight prevails throughout the whole period of which record has been preserved: 1910. Tront. April 434 May 4,246 June 11,019 July 10,974 August 12,685 September 1,706 Totals 41,064 lb. oz« . . 320 8 . . 3,212 4 . . 7,899 12 . . 7,965 0 . . 8,519 4 . . 1,284 0 . . 29,200 12 Average weight, 11 7 ounces. 1911. Trout. April 536 May 946 June 4,220 July 7.520 August . 7,577 September 1,744 Totals 22,543 lb. ex*. . . 448 10 785 11 3,473 4 5,743 7 5,825 8 1,533 11 • . 17,810 3 Average weight, 12i ounces. *It probably hat rivals among the Irish loughs, but none of these has had the same care and protection bestowed upon it. Poaching is very rife in most parts of Ireland, and statistics of the annual takes are not forthcoming. 124 TROUT-FISHING 1912. TrtMt. lb. ou. April 884 May 13.931 June 16,520 July 7,832 August 8,226 September 1,651 Totals 49,044 . . 686 1 . . 9,260 9 . . 10,500 0 . . 5,527 13 . . 6,264 5 . . 1,336 0 . . 33.574 12 Average weight, lOif ounces. The highest average recorded is that for 1903, viz., 1 lb. 5| oz., but that was also the year of the lowest total of fish taken — 2,002. It may be ob- served incidentally that the vast increase in the annual catch is the result of the protective and regenerative system adopted by Mr P. D. Malloch, who, in 1908, took over the management of the fishery for the Tay Fish- eries Company. Pike, which used to swarm in Loch Leven, have been per- sistently fished with trammel nets, and are now so scarce that only fifteen were taken in the twelve months ending in September, 1912. When Mr Malloch began upon them, the captures were reckoned by thousands. A few years ago, a very large proportion of the trout taken were caught on the minnow; but it is pleasant to record that now minnow -fishing is the exception, and may come to be prohibited altogether, as it ought to be in such a free-rising lake. Personally, I have never fished Loch Leven, nor do I entertain any desire to do so. There is too much of the competitive element in the proceed- ings there to attract me, and I hold that directly generous emulation merges into competition for prizes, ill luck must be embittered without the glow of success being enhanced by the feeling that the loss or capture of a good fish carries its equivalent in cash. During the season 1912 one hundred and sixty -two competitions were decided on the bosom of this fair lake, and in these no fewer than 2,052 anglers took part, accounting for the capture of 13,166 trout, weighing 8,343 lb. This is a wonderful test of the fertility of Loch Leven and testifies to the science and energy which have been applied to the development of its resources; but the per- formance has parted with the charm inherent to wild field-sport. Give me rather a couple of hours' climbing to a lonesome mountain tarn, with the chance of finding the wind propitious to casting from its boatless, reed- girt shores, and I will not exchange the chance of two or three brace of 125 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD wildling trout for the certainty of a full basket under the guidance of a couple of sophisticated boatmen on cosmopolitan water, who probably have bets with other boatmen upon the result of one's fishing, and are dissatisfied with one who will not fish with as feverish diligence as if he were baling a sinking boat in mid-channel. I know of no waters closely adjacent to each other between which the contrast is more striking in the quality of the fish they contain than the different lochs and tarns which skirt the Moor of Rannoch. That vast soli- tude is over 1 ,200 feet above sea level, and contains the wreck of the prime- val forest imbedded in profound peat. At the north-east extremity of the moor, in the heart of Corrour Forest, lies Loch Ossian, a fine sheet of water filling a granite basin between Beinn-na-Lap and Carn Dearg, both above 3,000 feet high. The lake is four miles long and nowhere more than half a mile across, abounding in shallow bays, but of great depth down the middle of the cleft. No more promising sheet of water can be imagined by the fly -fisher, but none could prove more disappointing. It is full of little starveling trout whereof one might catch a hundred or two in a day without excessive effort, yet would not one of these fish exceed the dimensions of a robust gudgeon. In the same water system, and distant only a few hundred yards from the head of Loch Ossian, are half a dozen insignificant little tarns, varying in size from half an acre to, say, twenty acres. From one of these, a dark little mere of about three acres at most, it was reported that a station- master on the West Highland Railway had taken a trout of 4 lb. on a night- line. I was fired with ambition to try my luck there in more chivalrous fashion and induced a friend to go with me. Having described the result of our expedition elsewhere, I crave leave to quote the passage: •' Only a small part of this tarn can be commanded from the shore, so wide and dense is the belt of reeds surrounding it; so my host undertook, in the face of almost insurmountable difficulties, to cause a boat to be conveyed thither. It was latish before this was accom- plished; the soft air of a grey morning had hardened and turned gusty— not the kind of after-day to bring trout to the surface. How- ever, there we were to make the best of it; there was the lochan, lying snugly in lee of the sheltering dome of Beinn-na-lice (which, if you would not be misunderstood, you must pronounce to rhyme, not with "slice," but with "streaky"), its waters impenetrably dark in the calm — silver frosted in the breeze. 126 TROUT-FISHING " I had not the patience to wait till the boat wa8 launched. Leaving it to my fellow -explorer, I began whipping along fifty yards or so of rocky shore, the only part of the loch accessible from the land. I cannot have made more than half-a-dozen casts when there came an eddying bulge in the brown water that made my heart stop beating. Nothing came of it, however: a big fish had missed the fly, and would not be tempted to give another offer. Nor did I stir another fin in the rest of my beat. By the time I came to the end of it my friend was afloat — and, by the Hokey! he's in a fish and a good one too, judging by the arc of his nine -footer. Deep, deep and ever deeper the unseen quarry plunges, visiting every quarter of that little mere, warning all his clan to take shelter from danger. Full twenty minutes were added to the past before that doughty fish could be brought to the surface and towed into the net. And how much did he weigh, think you ? Six pounds ? Four ? Not less, surely, to judge from the stiffness of the fight. Nay, but he barely pulled the steelyard down to 2^ lb., having been hooked, not in the mouth, but in the dorsal fin. A beauti- fully shaped fish, but very dark, suitably to his native environment, without a single spark of scarlet on his skin. *' By this time the evening had turned cold and raw. We left the Nameless Tarn with but a single specimen of its inhabitants . . . but the enjoyment of that afternoon bore no proportion to the weight of the basket."* The moral of this long yarn might have been conveyed more succinctly, but set a fisherman talking of the past and trust him to test the quality of your patience. The said moral is that, where there is no check on mul- tiplication, a trout loch is sure to become a congested district, peopled with fingerlings. To net out annually nine-tenths of the trout in Loch Ossian would involve immense labour and the sacrifice of millions of innocent lives, but it would turn a worthless fishery into an excellent one. There is only one other expedient, namely, to turn in pike, but that is too hazar- dous to be thought of. Even in dealing with a lake in the possession of a single proprietor, he should never consent to the introduction of a fish that is enormously prolific and has proved the ruin of some of the finest natural trout waters in the realm. He might decide to risk the fortunes of his own fishery, but there are very few waters unconnected with the fisheries of other people, and these soon become infested also if pike are "Mtmoriit of the Months, Fifth Series, pp. 186-9. 127 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD introduced into any part of tlie system. Locli Ossian, being situated near the summit of a high watershed, would prove, if it contained pike, a source of contamination to the Spean and the Lochy, both of which are fine salmon rivers. It is impossible to estimate the extent of fine fly-fishing water which has been irretrievably ruined by the distribution of pike. In pre -Reformation times these fish were greatly valued as furnishing food for Lent and other jours dejeune. They grow very fast and fat in stew ponds, and what their flesh lacks in quality (and in my humble opinion it lacks everything in that respect) it makes up for in quantity. There is no other way of accounting for the presence of pike in certain waters than by assuming that they were transported by the monks to the waters attached to various religious houses. A suggestive circumstance may be noted in Wigtownshire bearing upon this hypothesis. In the parish of Inch there are three large lakes, besides sundry tarns. Two of these lochs are within Lord Stair's spacious park of Castle Kennedy; they measure respectively about three-quarters of a mile and a mile in length, and contain plenty of trout, but no pike. About a mile to the south of these lochs lies Saulseat Loch, taking its name from the Abbey of Saulseat, which stood on a promontory within it. In this there are no trout and swarms of pike. Now as all three lochs are of similar character, lying within the same geological formation and at the same level — less than fifty feet above the sea — I feel convinced that we shall be doing the Premonstratensian monks of Saulseat no injustice by attributing to them the presence of pike in the water which was at their door. However, I must get back to my text, and leave pike to be dealt with by another hand, merely impressing upon my readers that once pike become established in a lake it is impossible to get rid of them save by draining the water away, and even that is not always successful, for the pike fry harbour in any little ditch or runnel connected with the lake, which, after being refilled, will soon be as badly infested as ever. In- dustrious netting will serve to reduce them to such numbers as are consistent with the presence of a fair stock of trout; but as the trammel net is the only really effective way of dealing with these pirates, large trout are just as likely to be taken as pike. It is not to be understood that pike and trout do not manage to co -exist in many of our northern lakes. In large sheets of water with plenty of shallow bays and fed by streams in which the trout may spawn, there 128 TROUT-FISHING Is often good trout-fishing; it is in basins of limited dimensions that trout are soon exterminated by pike, which then take to feeding upon each other. Where they do co- exist sport of a very exciting order may be had by the fly-fisher who hits off the right time. That time generally occurs somewhere in the last week of May or the first fortnight of June, and the moment is when a heavy rise of large natural files is on. Then the big trout that have outlived risk from all but very large pike come boldly to the surface, and files cast where one has been seen to rise is almost sure to establish business relations. I think the loveliest brace of trout that ever I caught were taken thus in Loch Dornal, Ayrshire. I had no boat, and it was tantalizing in no small measure to see fish rising far beyond the compass of a nine -footer; but by wading in a sandy bay I managed to cover two rising fish, and brought them both to land, the largest weighing 3J lb. Nobody, until he has experience of it, knows how a trout hooked under such conditions can fight. Lake trout are usually caught from a boat, and although, even so, the play of a north-country fish is a brilliant affair compared with that of a Hampshire trout of equal weight, the boat enables the angler to follow his fish, thereby gaining an unfair ad- vantage. But a man wading is practically a fixed point; he must remain in shallow water while the trout fights hard for the deep. In salmon-fishing with strong tackle the fisher can put on considerable pressure; but trout gut will not stand against the rush of a three -pounder; the fish must have what he chooses to take, and there is a point beyond which the cast will not stand the strain of submerged reel-line. I have been run out and broken by large lake trout through no fault of my own, and the chance of this adds materially to the excitement of the game. I have recourse to my fishing diary for a notable example of the man afloat being beaten by the man ashore. A friend took me to fish one after- noon in July, 1890, in the Thornton Reservoir which supplies the town of Leicester. It is a fine sheet of water varied by capes and bays, as like as no matter to a natural lake. My friend (at least as good a trout fisher as myself) took a boat, while I preferred to fish from the bank, although I had no waders. When we met again at sundown, I had twenty trout weighing 24 lb. and he had eleven weighing 11 lb., the aggregate basket being 35 lb. A word of caution about loch -wading. It is much safer than river - wading, owing to the absence of current, but it has a danger peculiar to itself owing to the treacherous nature of the bottom. A smooth, gravelly s 129 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD bottom sometimes ends abruptly in an expanse of soft mud or adhesive clay, and there are few sensations more unpleasant than sinking suddenly into such places. They are easily avoided if the fisherman will " ca' canny," travelling through the water with a sliding motion of the feet along the bottom so as to test the ground in advance. Thigh boots or water- proof stockings are useless for loch -wading — ^worse than useless, for the angler is certain to go deeper than he means or to make a false step, letting the water in over the tops, when his comfort is at an end for the day — a mild way for expressing intense discomfort, as I can testify from recollection of a long day's salmon-fishing on the Lochy. Those who are acquainted with that fine river will not require to be told that it cannot be fished without wading — deep wading, too — in strong streams paved with round, smooth stones that give a very treacherous foothold. Having been invited to fish the Camisky water, I had to borrow a pair of wading trousers from my host, who hung them outside the smoking-room door ready for my use on the morrow. There were three boys in that house, sons of my host; I am not aware of having done anything to incur their displeasure, nor do I attribute the dastardly trick they played me to malice any more than I suspected a retriever puppy of unorthodoxy when it got hold of my Bible, tore out and chewed, but refused as resolutely as any professor of the higher criticism, to swallow, the greater part of the Pentateuch. No, it cannot have been malice, but sheer mischief that prompted these youngsters to fire an arrow through the seat of the breeks I was to wear the next day. I never detected the lesion until I plunged waist-deep in the icy river next day, and then if, like the prophet Elisha, I could have pressed she -bears into my service, those sniggering youngsters would have had a rough time. Wading -trousers are indispensable for loch -wading, and make it much less fatiguing than fishing from the bank, for the water lends consider- able support as one proceeds with a sort of gliding motion. As we are on the subject of waders, let me offer a wrinkle to the purchaser of wad- ing trousers. Do not be persuaded to take a pair too short in the fork. The vendor of these articles perhaps never wore a pair of waders; he is con- cerned only to ensure a neat fit and consequently is anxious they should not look baggy; but bagginess is indispensable if one is to avoid the in- tolerable discomfort caused by trousers too short in the fork. If the fisher- man's coat is of the ordinary length, he will have to tuck it into his waders, which not only makes his figure needlessly inelegant, but makes the 130 TROUT-FISHING waders oppressively hot. To avoid tliis, he should have a jacket of rough tweed cut after the fashion of an Eton boy's, with no tails. (Salmon- fishers please copy.) Wading gear is now so moderate in price and so much lighter in wear than it was before rubber came into general use that one does not often now see a man wading without that protection. It was a common sight fifty years ago, but the practice was pretty sure to carry retribution with it. One of the most miserable afternoons I ever spent in fishing was in an expedition to Loch Dee, a lovely sheet of water in the heart of the wild uplands of Galloway. No road runs near this loch, and several miles of rough walking have to be faced after driving to the nearest point. It was a blazing morning in July: I elected to fish off the shore while my two companions took the boat. I had no wading gear; but I soon took to the water as the shore was not suitable for bank-fishing. The cool of the water was very refreshing after our hot walk, and I began well, getting three nice trout weighing 4 lb. But before long the scene changed; the sky became overcast, mist descended on the hill, a bitter wind arose lashing the lake into mimic rollers, and the trout ceased to rise. I was a poor, shivering wretch when the boating party returned (with seventeen fine trout) to find me cowering under a peat hag. I have been very shy of wading waderless ever since. In some lakes, of course, wading is impossible owing to the nature of the bottom. Having recounted an instance of discomfiture in one that was well suited for wading, I may as well describe another instance in which the conditions were prohibitive. A friend and I had been fishing all morning an excellent loch on my own property with very indifferent success. A couple of miles across the moor there is a black tarn, all that remains of what has once been a considerable sheet of water which has disappeared through drainage. Legends were afloat of what my old boatman called " material troots " in this peat hole, but I had never had the enterprise to cast a fly on it. Failing to do much in Loch Eldrig, we agreed to test the truth of these legends. Away we trudged, but on arriving at Drumnescat Loch, we found casting to be impracti- cable, owing to a strong breeze beating upon the only part of the shore that was clear of a broad belt of reeds. We resolved, therefore, to crossline the water (a mode of fishing which has since been made illegal). Fastening the ends of our lines together with eight or ten files dangling from them, we started to windward and moved slowly 131 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD along, one on either bank. We had not gone far before there was a plunge and a splash, the line tightened for a moment, and then fell loose. A large fish had broken the connexion between us and escaped. There was no time to reel up, so to save fouling the bottom, I ran backwards through the heather, and presently went heels over head into a peat hag. It would have been a very diverting spectacle for a third person had there been one to witness it. There was none; but I felt at the time that the convulsion of laughter which shook my companion betrayed a very heartless want of sympathy. We repaired damages, and managed to expiscate three or four trout from this weird little mere, of from half a pound to a pound in weight, very well shaped and of a peculiar tench-like olive colour. This has turned into a very discursive chapter; it is full time to pay attention to the matter that ought to be in hand. Loch fishing has this in common with dry-fly fishing, that, in lakes that contain trout of consider- able size — say a minimum average of 12 oz. — ^it is well-nigh useless fish- ing except when fly is on the water. At other times casting at large in the likeliest places, that is, where the water is not more than three or four feet deep, one may get an odd trout here and there; but it is monotonous work and it is better not to exhaust the energy of the boatman before fish begin to show on the surface. My companion in the cross -lining adventure was one of a party of three fishers who on a summer day made an expedition to Loch Skerrow, which contains some very fine trout, in the hill district of Galloway. Each of them put half -a -crown into a sweepstakes to be won by him who had the largest trout by luncheon-time. It turned out a " dour " day; there was no natural fly on the water; my friend, being familiar with the symp- toms, knew that it would be but an outside chance that brought anything up to the artificial, so he abandoned the loch, wandered down the small burn running out of it, and caught one troutlet weighing about an ounce and a half. His diagnosis of the conditions proved accurate. He produced his prey at luncheon time and won the sweep ! When the regular rise is not on, casting from the shore is more likely to be successful than from a boat, for there are often a few trout scouting for insects blown off the land. Thus I have sometimes caused trout to show themselves by shaking bushes by the waterside, and afterwards cast over them and caught them. For the same reason, good sport may often be had in a strong wind, perhaps too strong for boatwork, among trout 132 TROUT-FISHING on the outlook for windfalls. One such chance is recorded in my fishing book as having occurred on an April morning many years ago. There was no boat on a small loch which I had walked a considerable distance to fish; it was blowing so hard from the east that it was only possible to cast from one side of the loch; but in a very short time I landed ten trout in perfect condition weighing 10| lb.* Summer floods give a chance of sport which should not be neglected, especially in lakes where trout are large and scarce owing to the presence of pike. When the hill burns come tumbling down in spate and the clear water of the lake is stained for some distance with the peaty discharge, trout are attracted to the burn-mouths by the food brought down to them and rise well to the fly. There is a wide difference between the seasons at which trout arrive at good condition in different lakes. I own a small loch in which the trout are in prime order before the end of March, whereas in another and larger one in the same parish they are not fit to take till the month of May. No doubt this depends upon the greater and less abundance of larval, crus- tacean and molluscan food. Early in the season lake -trout are to be sought with the fly in shallow water, from four to five feet deep, in bays and round promontories or islands, for it is in such places that they chiefly resort in search of food; but as the water becomes warmer and the flies more abundant fish may be seen rising at any distance from the shore. In fishing a loch to which he is a stranger, the angler will naturally rely upon local fishermen for guidance as to the likeliest beats. In large lakes trout may be of very different size and quality in some parts from what are to be found in others. If the wind is pretty rough, long lines flecked with foam will form on the surface; it is a good practice to cast over one of these, for it is in them that the trout have learnt to look for floating fare. The local expert is sure to prescribe certain patterns of flies as indis- pensable to success, others as prohibitive thereof. You will lose nothing by following his advice (except perhaps in the matter of size), but at the same time you will probably gain nothing, except his good humour. In no lake or pond that I have ever fished have I been able to detect any need for more than half a dozen patterns; indeed I should be quite prepared 'Memory is a treacherous minx, and no fisherman should rely upon her for his facts. Had I done so in this instance I should have written 16 trout, weighing 16i lb.; indeed, I was on the point of doing so; but on turning up the record I found the numbers as given above. 133 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD to match my chance in any lake with three flies of the same pattern against another angler fishing with whatever he chose. It is all very well and interesting to prepare exact imitations of the fly that happens to be on the water; but the value of the imitation seems to be sacrificed when the mock insect is presented to the notice of the trout going through movements under water which the natural fly can only rival in the air. Commend me therefore to a few flies bearing a generic resemblance to aquatic insects — say Greenwell's Glory, Zulu, Yellow and Teal, the Fran- cis trout-fly, Red Palmer and March Brown. I care not what natural fly the trout in a lake may be feeding on, if he catches sight of one of these the odds are that he will take it, if it is about the right size to fit his fancy. As to what that size may be a good deal of misconception prevails. One is apt to suppose that it is expedient to use larger flies in a loch than in a stream because of the greater depth of water and the heavier average of the fish. I believe this to be a mistake, unless the wind is rough. In a light breeze it will be found that flies tied on o or oo hooks, sdch as are usual in stream-fishing, will raise far more trout than what are usually called loch flies. The flsh when hooked require to be handled more deli- cately than on coarser tackle and it takes longer to bring them to the net; but in any loch which is much frequented by anglers, small flies will ensure a heavier bag than big ones. Larger flies, up to the size used for sea- trout, miay be used in rough weather when the water is lashed into waves; indeed a small double-hooked salmon-fly will sometimes prove effective when trout cannot be induced to come to the usual flies. I am told that most of the fine trout in Blagdon Reservoir are taken by that means. Fishing the Darent at LuUingstone with Mr Legh (now Lord Newton), I spotted a big trout in the pond in front of the castle rising at files under the boughs of a horse-chestnut. I put a red quill over him several times, but there was no current to move it, and he would have nothing to do with it. In the afternoon I showed this fish to my friend, who took off his fine gut cast, substituting a stronger one, to which he attached a double -hooked " Silver Grey." Much to our surprise the trout took it like a lion and was soon landed — 3 lb. or thereabouts, if I remember aright. Such a feat is all very well as a tour de force; but most of the charm of trout-fishing would be missing if it were done with strong tackle. To kill such a trout as this on finest gut and oo hook is a tour (Tadresse. 134 TROUT-FISHING Much respect as fishermen owe to W. C. Stewart, " the Practical An- gler," to the soundness of whose principles I have paid tribute in another chapter, one cannot but marvel at his advice about a rod for fly-fishing from a boat or the shore of a lake. ** The rod for fly-fishing from a boat need not be longer than thir- teen or fourteen feet, as that is long enough to keep the angler out of sight. ... In angling from the bank a rod of two feet longer might be advisable."* Phew ! it makes one's back ache to think of such a weapon. One has to cast much more incessantly in fishing a loch than in fishing a stream, whether for salmon or trout, wherefore the labour of wielding so long a rod would be distressing. As for keeping out of sight, I have often been surprised by the indifference shown by trout to the approach of a boat. Sometimes one will take the fiy almost under the blade of an oar. Nine or ten feet is plenty of length for the rod. I have left myself little space for observations on minnow-fishing for trout, whether in stream or lake. Of the use of spinning-bait in rivers I have no experience whatever, wherefore all I shall say about it is that it is a de- testable practice. The river trout is too chivalrous a creature to be offered any lure except the fly — ^natural or artificial. It is the case, of course, that trout may be taken with minnow at times and under conditions when they will not look at the fly, but in proportion as the minnow-fisher is success- ful so does he diminish the chances of the more dainty craftsmen. I have known men, skilful at sport, so keen on killing that, if fish could not be taken by fair means, they would have them out by foul, such as " snatch- ing " a salmon. Now I am far from pronouncing minnow-fishing in rivers to be foul sport; but it seems to me very poor sport and inimical to the interests of fly-fishing. So it is when practised in lochs, with one excep- tion, namely, when the game is the great lake trout usually termed "ferox." That class of trout never can be taken except with a sunk bait, for it dwells in the deepest water where surface lures cannot be seen. Trailing a spinning -bait for ferox from the stern of a boat requires no skill on the part of the fisher; the boatmen take him over the likeliest ground; he is responsible only for the soundness of his tackle. And faith! that had need to be sound in every part, for a large ferox fights like a small torpedo. These great trout seem to draw towards the shallows in the evening. *Tkt Practical Anghr, p. 174 (ed. 1857). 135 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD That, at least, is the time of day when I have had most success with them, after spending many of the earlier hours trying, not always successfully, to keep awake while the boatmen plied their oars. The battle, when it comes, is worth waiting and working for, and the prize, when you have won it, is sometimes a very handsome creature. Sometimes, however, it is the reverse, for the old males turn very dark in autumn, like a kipper salmon. Before parting from the British trout, courtesy to a distinguished foreigner demands a tribute of admiration to the Rainbow trout {Salmo irideus). Alas! that the elusive habits of that splendid creature require that our admiration must be of a purely platonic character, for although our allegiance to the British trout seemed at first in danger of being shaken by the superior brilliancy and vigour of the rainbow, further acquaintance with that species has proved how improbable it is that it has come to stay. It disappears from waters to which it may be introduced in the United Kingdom as surely and mysteriously as does its fellow- countrymen, Salvelinus fontinalis. Our regret for this is mitigated by the fact that the rainbow trout spawns at the same season as the grayling, wherefore it is unseasonable throughout the fairest fishing months of the angler's year. A few years ago it seemed as if the rainbow trout were going to obtain almost exclusive possession of the Tamar, where they were introduced by the Duke of Bedford at Endsleigh. In the summer of 1909 they were simply swarming in that pretty river, chiefly of small size — ^three or four to the pound, though there were a few taken about a pound in weight. In fly-fishing one caught at least two rainbows to every yellow trout, and they were worthless, being out of condition in summer. But the Duke informs me that they are disappearing fast even from the Tamar, and no man knoweth whither they have gone. To the sea, perhaps, unless it be to that bourne whence no traveller returns. Rainbows certainly have been taken in sea nets at the mouth of the Conway and elsewhere. One day in February, noticing a brace of these fish weighing about 2 lb. apiece on a London fishmonger's slab, I went to inquire whence they had come. The salesman showed suspicion of me, thinking, I suppose, that I might be an inspector sniffing about for a violated close -time. I had some diffi- culty in persuading him that my inquiry was made purely in the interest of natural history, when he vouchsafed the information that these pretty foreigners had been taken in a net at the mouth of the Aberdeenshire Dee, 136 TROUT-FISHING and had been consigned to him as sea-trout. And veritable sea-trout they possibly may turn out to be, for American ichthyologists incline to believe that rainbows are but adolescent steel-head salmon and therefore season- ably migrant to and from the ocean. Notwithstanding their evasive habits in this country, it is not altogether labour lost to rear the lovely rainbow trout in hatcheries for stocking lakes and ponds withal. The young fish grow at an extraor- dinary speed, far faster than common trout, and often attain a weight of two or three pounds before they disappear. So long as they remain accessible to the angler, they give him excellent sport, for they are very free risers and hard fighters, and their flesh affords very delicate fare. 137 TROUT-FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND By C. E. LUCAS NO survey of the angling capabilities of the world would be complete without a notice, however succinct, of the remarkable results following upon the introduction of British brook trout into New Zealand. No species of the genus Salmo is indigenous to that island; indeed, in the whole southern hemisphere the only freshwater repre- sentative of the family Salmonidce is a small smelt {Retropinna Richard- sottii) inhabiting certain lakes in New Zealand; consequently the enterprise of those who attempted to acclimatize Atlantic salmon and British trout in the rivers of the Southern Pacific was an arduous and doubtful experi- ment. Thus far, the importation of salmon ova into the waters of Tasmania and New Zealand has failed to succeed in establishing the king of fresh- water fishes therein; but his absence is amply atoned for by the readiness with which the common trout and the rainbow trout have taken to these distant quarters, and the prodigious size to which they grow there may well excite the envy of stay-at-home anglers. These trout have assumed, not only the weight of true salmon, but also their appearance and, to some extent, in Tasmanian waters, at least, their migratory habit. The red spots, so characteristic of British brook trout, disappear after the yearling stage, and the fish become as silvery as salmon, marked also with the x-shaped black spots which distinguish that species. In Tasmania these trout desert the rivers in summer, repairing to the sea, where they are taken of large size in nets, those that escape returning to the rivers to spawn in autumn. It remains to be ascertained by protracted and accurate observation whether we have in this phenomenon an epitome and reflection of the salmonoid history in the northern hemisphere during tertiary and post- tertiary times. The following particulars have been prepared from notes kindly supplied to the editor by Mr C. E. Lucas, of Warnham Court, Horsham, and may serve as a fair sample of the sport to be had in New Zealand. One is apt to suspect that trout of the fine weight attained by the fish killed by Mr Lucas and his friends are of the kind which can only be tempted by spinning baits or worm; but it will be seen from Mr Lucas's notes that the artificial 138 PLATE XXVII. RIVER TONGARIRO, NEW ZEALAND. ON THE RIVER WAIAU. TROUT-FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND fly accounted for far more than three times the number of fish taken on the spinning bait; and this, in the opinion of most anglers, goes greatly to enhance the quality of the sport. It will be observed also that all but three of these fish were rainbow trout; particulars of brown trout fishing are given on a later page. •* The Tongariro River, New Zealand, flows from the great central mountains into the southern end of Lake Taupo Moana at Tokaanu. The scenery is very fine; on the east are the Kaimanawa Mountains, on the west the Tongariro Mountain, and, a little further south, the active volcano Ngauruhoe, with its snow-clad, smoking summit. Away to the south-west towers the mighty Ruapehi. Broad stretches of grass-land border the river, broken in places by thickets of manuka and phormium or New Zealand flax. *• The river itself is a wide, sweeping stream, very swift and rough in places, in others resting in long, placid reaches. When the water is fairly high, the best lure is a salmon-fly; but the fish, chiefiy rainbow trout, take the spoon and Devon minnow well in clear water. Brown trout will seldom take in the daytime; they may be caught at night, however, on a spinning bait, and, if there is a moon, on the fly. Rainbow trout run up to 20 lb. in weight, and brown trout as high as 35 lb. "Lake Taupo Moana is a magnificent sheet of water, five-and- twenty miles long and sixteen miles broad, lying at an elevation of 1,250 feet. Large trout are taken therein by trolling, and there is good fiy-fishing in the innumerable streams that pour into it from the surrounding mountains." TONGARIRO RIVER, NEW ZEALAND, 1912. A. A. JAMIBSON, C. C. HENDERSON HAMILTON, G. N. HORLICK, C. E. LUCAS. Date. Rod. Pool. Weight of each Fish and Lure. Total per day for each Rod. Total per day for all 4 Rods. Num- ber. Weight, lb. Num- ber. Weight, lb. March 4 March 5 March 6 G. N. H. G. N. H. C. E. L. C. C. H. H. G. N. H. C. E. L. Down's Pool Nihoriki Jessie's Pool Down's Pool Nihoriki Jessie's Pool 11 lb.. Gold Devon 8 lb., Brown Trout, Gold Devon 9}, 8i lb., Gold Devon 8} lb.. Spoon 6h lb.. Spoon lOi lb., Gold Devon 1 1 2 1 1 1 11 8 181 8i 6i lOi i: 11 26i 25 i 139 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD TONGARIRO RIVER, NEW ZEALAND, 1912— continued Total per day Total per day Date. Rod. Pool. Weight of each Fish and Lure. for each Rod. for all 4 Rods. Num- Weight, Num- Weight, ber. lb. ber. lb. March 9 A. A. J. Nihoriki 3 lb., Spoon 1 3 C. C. H. H. Jessie's Pdol 9 lb., Spoon }2 141 C. C. H. H. Top Stream Si lb.. Spoon . 7 51 G. N. H. Jessie's Pool lOi lb., Brown Devon 1 G. N. H. Nihoriki 9i, 6i lb., Brown Devon 4 331 G. N. H. Top Stream 7i lb.. Brown Devon March 10 A. A. J. A. A. J. Down's Pool Nihoriki 9, 7i lb., Red Sandy Fly; 6ilb., Spoon 9, 7, 6i, 3J lb.. Spoon 7 49 C. C. H. H. Down's Pool Si, 6i lb., Jock Scott Fly }3 191 C. C. H. H. Nihoriki 4i lb.. Spoon 17 113i G. N. H. Dead Stream 5 lb.. Spoon G. N. H. Down's Pool 6} lb., Spoon 3 18i G. N. H. Nihoriki 6i lb.. Brown Devon C. E. L. Nihoriki 8}, 7i, 3 lb., Spoon; 6i lb., Blue Devon 4 26 March 11 A. A. J. Nihoriki 9 lb.. Spoon 1 9 C. C. H. H. Down's Pool 9i lb., Jock Scott Fly 6i lb., Jock Scott Fly }2 isi C. C. H. H. Nihoriki 7 611 G. N. H. Dead Stream 9 lb.. Spoon 1 9 C. E. L. Down's Pool 9i lb., Durham Ranger Fly; llf, 6i lb.. Silver Doctor Fly 3 27i March 12 A. A. J. C. C. H. H. C. C. H. H. Gull Beach Poplar Pool Grace's Pool 9J, 9i,9, 8i,6}. RedSandyFly; lOi lbs., Durham Ranger Fly 8 lb., Jock Scott Fly 91, 61, 3i lb., Jock Scott Fly 6 1 53i C. G. H. H. Hamilton's Pool 101. 10, 6i, 5i, 51 lb., Jock Scott h" 821 Fly; 9i, 71 lb., DurhamRanger Fly J -31 248} G. N. H. Poplar Pool 8}, 61 lb.. Silver Doctor Fly !■ 3 22i G. N. H. Grace's Pool 71 lb.. Silver Doctor Fly r ^ C. E. L. Gull Beach 8 lb.. Silver Doctor Fly; 101, 9i, 9,8}, 7i, 71, 71, 7J, 7.6ilb., Durham Ranger Fly 11 89i March 13 A. A. J. A. A. J. Gull Beach Down's Pool 101, 81, H, n, 6, 61, 6, 41 lb., Durham Ranger Fly 61, 41 lb., Durham Ranger Fly 10 691 C. C. H. H. Grace's Pool 9, 81, 81, 5i lb.. Butcher Fly } 5 38} C. C. H. H. Hamilton's Pool 61 lb., Durham Ranger Fly 23 182} G. N. H. Gull Beach 8}, 61 lb., Durham Ranger Fly; 6i lb., Invicta Fly 3 21} C. E. L. Gull Beach 20, Hi, 9}, 71b., Durham Ranger Fly J5 S3 C. E. L. Down's Pool 41 lb.. Black Ranger Fly March H A. A. J, C. C. H. H. Gull Beach Hinurewa 131, 10, 8, 8, 71 lb., Durham Ranger Fly 9i, 9}. 9, 9, 8}, 81, 6i, 4 lb., 5 47 \ Durham Ranger Fly 8 64 ■20 1761 G. N. H. Hinurewa 8i lb., Durham Ranger Fly [ 2 ISi G. N. H. Nihoriki 71 lb.. Spoon "* C. B. L. Gull Beach 161, lOi, 9i, 7i, Si lb., Durham Ranger Fly 5 49} March 15 A. A. J. Down's Pool 7i lb., Durham Ranger Fly 1 71 ) C. E. L. Hinurewa 8i, 5i lb., Durham Ranger Fly }3 23} 4 31 C. E. L. Nihoriki 9i lb.. Gold Devon ) March 16 A. A. J. Hinurewa 8. 7i lb.. Gold Devon }3 25 A. A. J. Nihoriki Oi lb.. Spoon, BrowH Trout 4 391 C. E. L. Nihoriki 14i lb.. Spoon, Brown Trout 1 141 140 TROUT-FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND TONGARIRO RIVER, NEW ZEALAND, 1912-continued Total per day Tota per day Date. Rod. Pool. Wrifbt ofoaoh Fbb and Lure. for each Rod. foraU4Roda. Num- Weight, Num- Weight, ber. lb. ber. lb. March 17 A. A. J. A. A. J. Gull Beach Kahiwi 14, 9, 6i, 5} lb., Jock Soott Fly; si, 6 lb., Brown Devon 81, 7i lb., Brown Devon m, 8i lb.. Gold Devon 8 66 C. C. H. H. Hinurewa 2 19 17 1471 G. N. H. Grace's Pool 6i lb., Durham Ranker Fly 1 61 C. E. L. Gull Beach 13 , 61b., Silver Doctor Fly; lOi, 10, 8f, 7ilb., Black Ranger Fly 6 56i March 18 A.A.J. Poplar Pool 9, 7i lb., Durham Ranger Fly } ' 281 V A. A. J. Down's Pool 7, 5 lb., Durham Ranger Fly C. C. H. H. Gull Beach 10, 8J lb., Jock Scott Fly 2 181 C. B. L. Hamilton's Pool lU, n, 7}, Si, 10 lb., Durham Ranger Fly I 14 116 C. B. L. Down's Pool 5i lb., Silver Doctor Fly; 8i lb.. Black Ranger Fly; 81b., Gold Finch Fly 8 69 March 19 A. A. J. Gull Beach 81, 8, 41b., Durham Ranger Fly 3 201 ' C. C. H. H. Nihoriki 4 lb.. Black Doctor Fly 1 4 C. E. L. Down's Pool 10, 9J, 8i, 8i, 8, 7i lb., Black Doctor Fly; 8}, 6, 4i, 3 lb.. Black Ranger Fly 10 73i 14 98i March 20 A. A. J. Hamilton's Pool Hi lb.. Thunder and Lightning Fly A. A. J. Jamieson's Reach 9i, 8 J, 8 lb., Jock Scott Fly; lOi, 9i, 9, 81, 81. 8, 8 lb., Durham Ranger Fly 11 991* C. C. H. H. Gull Beach IS, 12, 10 lb., Black Ranger Fly; 101 lb., Black Doctor Fly 4 471 G. N. H. G. N. H. Grace's Pool Jessie's Pool 41, 31 lb., Durham Ranger Fly 9i, 9, 81, 411b., Durham Ranger Fly 1« 39i 32 282it C. B, L. Poplar Pool 91, 6i lbs., Durham River Fly ■\ C. E. L. Grace's Pool 9 lb., Durham Ranger Fly C. E. L. Down's Pool 8i, 8, 7i lb., Jock Scott Fly 11 96 C. E. L. Jessie's Pool 7i lb.. Gold Devon C. E. L. Nihoriki 12, 91, 6ilb., Gold Devon; lOilb. Spoon 197 l,610i 197 l,610ilb. Total: 194 Rainbow Trout, 3 Brown Trout = 197 Fish. Weight : 1,610} lb. Average Weight per Fish: 8*17 lb. Largest Fish : 20 lb. Weight. Smallest Fish : 3 lb. Weight. 'Heaviest day's catch for one rod. tHeaviest day's catch for all 4 rods. 141 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD TONGARIRO RIVER, NEW ZEALAND, 1912-contittued Rod. Bait Spinning, Fly. BQQ 0(S e a nQ h ma OSco U M ° o a a o nQ U U O n tnQ O 3 g •o "o O 2 e 6.S •O B I. If A. A. J. C. C. H. H. G. N. H. C. B. L. 1 2 2 2 8 4 5 8 4 5 S 31 11 10 30 3 10 7 7 15 3 2 6 3 6 4 I 1 1 1 14 9 22 82 13 7 25 8 9 4 1 1 1 Total Number of Fish Caught on Bait. Total Number of Fish Caught on Fly. Total Number of Fish Caught by each Rod. Average Weight per Fish. Total Weight of Fish Caught by each Rod. A. A. J. C. C. H. H. G. N. H. C. E. L. 14 6 12 14 46 35 14 56 60 41 26 70 7-97 lb. 8-10 lb. 7-40 lb. 8-67 lb. 4781 lb. 332J lb. 192 i lb. 607} lb. 46 151 197 — 1,610} lb. N.B. — In the Southern Hemisphere the month of March, when these fish were taken, corresponds to the month of September in Great Britain. So much for angling prospects in the northern island of New Zealand; in 1902 Mr C. H. Osmond communicated to *' The Field " newspaper a description of his sport in some of the rivers of the southern island, which, of course, enjoys a cooler climate than the other. On the Kakanui River, sixty miles north of Dunedin, he spent ten days with his two boys and caught about four hundred brown trout, averaging somewhat over a pound, but including one of 6 lb. Next, in the Owaka River, further south, he recorded one day fourteen fish weighing 22 lb., and the following day seven fish weighing 16 lb., including one of 5 lb. Three days on the Maka- rewa River yielded twenty-six brown trout weighing 46 lb.; and a couple of hours in an evening on the Waikiwi River gave one trout of 7 lb. and another of 2 lb. 142 RAINBOW TROUT FROM THE RIVER TONGARIRO. ANGLERS' CAMP ON THE WAIAU RIVER. TROUT-FISHING IN NEW ZEALAND ** Having noticed a big one rising on the wrong side of the river for me, I told a friend about him. He drove out next morning a distance of six miles, and was home in time for breakfast at nine with two pictures of brown trout; they weighed 7 lb. each, and might have been brothers. . . . "... The Waiau River is comparatively unknown, even to New Zealand anglers, but it is an angler's paradise. Before going, I had been advised to take extra strong gear and long line. I thought eighty yards would do; but I found that I required one hundred and fifty ! ** It is hard to describe fishing on the Waiau. The river itself is a very big one; I should judge it to be at least 130 yards across — deep and swift, yet with some splendid ripples. On the night of my arrival I went out about 8 o'clock, lit a huge fire on the shingle with big drift- wood, and started. My first fish was about 10 lb., and a nice job it was trying to gaff him in the flickering light from the fire. It is not an easy matter to land a 10 lb. trout from a fast river even in the day- time; but at night it is a caution. *' However, by 12 o'clock I had landed fifteen fish weighing 104 lb., and had lost four casting lines, supposed to be extra strong ones. The following day I caught seventeen fish averaging 6 lb., and lost another cast. The fish took the minnow and made straight for the opposite bank, not up or down stream, but straight across. With a salmon rod and the strongest gut procurable, I could do nothing with these very big ones, but have made up my mind to find out how big they are next season, by having a line which will reach across this river. If anyone wants exciting angling, let him try the Waiau River in January or February (corresponding to July and August in the northern hemisphere)." 143 CHAR By the RIGHT HON. SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART. SEATED one day in the cool dining-room of a Norwegian hotel discussing a first-rate middagsmad, or midday meal, an English clergyman next me remarked upon the excellence of a dish of trout whereof we were partaking. *' Excellent indeed," quoth I, " but they happen not to be trout." As he seemed to think me a very ignorant person, probably a Cockney tourist, and repeated the assurance that they were trout, I took the head of one of these fishes and showed him that the vomer or palatal bone bore teeth only on the fore-part, proving them to be char; whereas had they been common trout, they would have borne teeth along the entire length of that bone. The genus Salmo is divided according to its dentition into three groups or subgenera; indeed, some modern systematists consider the difference between them to be so marked and permanent as to justify their recognition as three distinct genera, namely, (1) Salmo, including all forms of salmon and trout; (2) Salvelinus, comprising the chars; and (3) Hucho, consisting only of one species, the Danubian huchen. In salmon and trout the vomer is armed with teeth along its whole length, although only those on the head or fore -part are permanent, the others being apt to drop out in mature and aged fish. In the char, the vomer is proportionately shorter than that bone in the mouths of salmon and trout; a deep transverse depression or groove marks off the head from the rest of the bone, and the teeth are all set in a cluster upon the head. The huchen {Hucho hucho) of the Danube is a fine fish, sometimes approaching the dimensions of Atlantic salmon, but not migrating to the sea. It was formerly classed as a char, owing to the shaft of the vomer being toothless, and the teeth being confined to the fore -part, which, as in the char, is marked off by a transverse groove; but these teeth, instead of being set in a cluster, are arranged in a single, regular rank, which has been held to constitute the hucho as a distinct group or subgenus. The true chars are further differentiated from other salmonoid fish by the brilliant scarlet and orange hues which, usually more or less present on the flanks and belly throughout the year, become more intense on the approach of the spawning season. 144 CHAR Of the huchen we have as yet no experience in Great Britain as a sporting fish. They are easily reared in captivity; Mr A. N. Gilbey having obtained fertile spawn from those bred in his hatchery at Denham Fishery, Lord Desborough turned a number of yearlings into the upper waters of the Thames in 1906, but no results have been reported by anglers so far. Should this powerful fish become established in that river, there is probably lively experience in store for roach and barbel fishers with light tackle; for it is well spoken of by those who have caught it in its native waters as a desperate hard fighter, taking fly or bait as freely as do salmon and trout. Now, while I accept, were it only for convenience, the generic distinc- tion assigned to Salmo, Salvelinus and Hucho, I shall have something to say presently in explanation of my inability to recognize more than a single British species of char. The true chars are distributed in a remarkable manner through the northern hemisphere. Abounding in certain sheets of water, usually at a high elevation, they are absent from others of the same character. They are usually lake -dwellers, though in Norway the northern char (S. alpinus) inhabits the more northerly rivers, in some of which they have acquired or retained the seasonal sea -going habit. The beautiful brook trout of North America also is a char {Salvelinus fontinalis), and bright were the hopes entertained about it when it was introduced some years ago as a most desirable addition to the list of British sporting fishes. It was reared by tens of thousands in hatcheries and distributed so widely that I sup- pose there is hardly a county in England or Scotland where some attempt was not made to establish these fish in lakes, ponds and streams. The result, so far as I have heard, has been uniformly in accord with my own experience. The young fish grow bravely for a year or so after they are liberated; the lovely dark marbling on back and sides and the vermilion flames which overspread their flanks towards the end of the summer, combined with the perfect symmetry of their shapely bodies and small heads, quite eclipse the beauty of our native trout and make them ap- pear almost dowdy in comparison. Moreover, from the angler's point of view, the fontinalis has this advantage over both grayling and rainbow trout, that its season corresponds with those of Salmo fario, so that, like that species, it is in the best condition during the summer months. But all these signal merits are cancelled, so far as British anglers are concerned, by the refusal of the American brook trout to accept letters of naturalization in the waters of the United Kingdom. Readers may u 145 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD weary of one who writes much in the first person, and to do so is destruc- tive of all grace in literature; but, after all, in dealing with facts, one can speak with more confidence upon matter within his own experience than he can upon mere hearsay. That may serve, I hope, as an excuse for describing in a few words my personal experience with S. fontinalis. There are two lakes on my property wherein, owing to the absence of pike, there is good store of trout. Into one of these, a basin about one -third of a mile in length, were turned some years ago one hundred yearling fontinalis. Although the lake is fished very constantly with fly (I suppose that between April 15 and September 15 the boat is out with anglers on an average of at least three days a week), I never heard that a sin^e fontinalis was recaptured. It was surmised that they had made their escape down the burn which connects the lake with the sea about half a mile distant. The other lake is a very small one, only about five acres in extent and, being fed by the springs, there is hardly any spawning ground for trout, and the stock has to be replenished each year by turning in yearlings or two -year -olds. Food is exceedingly abundant and common trout grow fast to a large size. The outlet is closed by an iron grating. Into this lake also one hundred yearling fontinalis were turned. The angling here is reserved for myself and a few personal friends. The year after these fish were released, I caught a lovely one weighing about | lb., and high was my expectation of sport when another year should have added to the stature of his fellows. Not one of those fellows ever came to hand. What became of them no one knows. They could not escape from the loch, for the exit was barred; if they had died, surely some of their bodies would have been washed ashore. All we know is that they disappeared. The experience of others who have turned these American char into streams has been similar. They will not abide in British waters, and must be dismissed with a sigh from the list of British game fishes. British char possess far more interest for the gourmet and the zoologist than for the fly -fisher — ^for the gourmet, because of the exquisite delicacy of flavour in these fish when taken in the proper season — ^for the zoologist, because of the suggestive irregularity of their distribution. Being more impatient of warmth than trout, char live and feed in deep water; and although bumble -clocks and winged ants do tempt them to the surface, and at times, in some lakes, they cruise about in shoals, it is not worth anybody's while to lay his account for a day's fly-fishing for char. A brace or two of these lovely fish in a good basket of trout may be considered a fair catch, 146 CHAR even In a lake containing thousands of char. Lakes, however, vary in this respect. I believe that small char are pretty frequently taken with fly in Loch Doon, Ayrshire, and in Hawes Water, Cumberland, while large baskets are sometimes filled by worm-fishers in the Welsh lynns. Now as to the question of classification. In 1866 Dr Gunther distin- guished five separate species of British char, and this number has been multiplied to fifteen by the latest authority, Mr C. Tate Regan, who, like Dr Ganther, has enjoyed the advantage of studying the question as an official in the Natural History Department of the British Museum. "I am quite aware," writes Mr Tate Regan, "that some authors contend that there is only one species of char in our islands, whilst some would not even recognize the various forms as distinct races. Certainly our species of char are recent species and geographical species; they are of quite another nature from widely distributed forms such as the pike or roach, which have probably persisted unchanged during the whole of the time that the evolution of the Salvelini has proceeded. Nevertheless, they differ from each other in characters which are used to define species in other groups, and which may, therefore, be regarded as specific."* The definition of species must always be a difficult problem, and I submit with much diffidence the considerations which prevent me yield- ing assent to Mr Tate Regan's classification of British char, founded as it is upon variations which have not been proved to be permianent. Pike, roach, perch and other fish which retain a uniformity of structure and appearance, belong to orders more highly organized than the Sal- tnonidcB, which are peculiarly plastic and susceptible to the influence of environment. There is far greater external difference between trout {S. fario) from different waters, and even between trout taken from different parts of the same lake, than exists between the varieties of char which it is sought to recognize as species. No British fish, except the Coregoni, a branch of the salmon family, has been so long and so severely segregated as the char. The presence of this fish in its several varie- ties in those lakes where it is found probably dates from that remote period (Mr Tate Regan suggests nearly 100,000 years), when the last glacial period was drawing to a close and the ice -sheet was gradually receding northwards. The char, being an arctic or sub-arctic salmonoid, inhabited the waters flowing from the melting ice-field and collecting •r*# Freshwater Fishes of the British Isles, by C. Tate Rejan, 1911, p, 77. 147 FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD in lakes. Many of these lakes have disappeared; others have lost their char population owing to a variety of causes, such as high temperature, the intrusion of pike or, as in Ullswater, mineral pollution. In course of time, char became restricted in Britain and Ireland to comparatively few lacustrine colonies, totally isolated and debarred from intercourse from each other. It would be strange, indeed, if one of these colonies, occupying for tens of thousands of years a mountain lake in Wales, did not develop some variation in colour, form and even structure from fish of a common ancestry confined for a like period in a mountain lake of the Scottish Highlands and from others dwelling under very different climatic conditions in a lowland lake in Ireland. So far, there is no difference between Mr Tate Regan and myself. We agree that a considerable variation exists between char of different colonies, and that these variations are constant within such colonies, thereby constituting a distinct race. But where I must part company with Mr Regan is in his assumption that these variations would persist if the char of different lakes were exposed to the same environment. Unless they did so persist through several generations, it is clear that prolonged isolation in colonies has not prevailed to establish separate species. Moreover his reasoning about char might be more convincing had he not pursued a converse line of argument in regard to trout; classing all forms of British freshwater trout as " pertaining to one variable species," and accounting for the presence of trout in all the waters of the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland Islands, where no other freshwater fishes —roach, perch, etc. — are found, by the hypothesis that these trout "have been derived from the sea-trout, which have lost their migratory instinct in different places and at different times."* Owing to the deep-water habits of the char, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to demonstrate by experiment whether a Welsh torgoch reared in Windermere would transmit to its posterity permanent features distinguishing them from the native char of that lake; but the burden of proof surely lies upon those ichthyologists who proclaim the Welsh race to be a species distinct from the Windermere race. Having seen repeatedly how rapidly trout alter their appearance under the influence of condi- tions of soil, water -area and food, and how soon those that are brought *Fr*shwater Fishes of the British Isles, p. 55-57. I have expressed elsewhere (see p. 7 n. ante) my belief that both salmon and trout are natives of freshwater which have acquired the sea-joinj habit, just as British brook-trout, when acclimatized in New Zealand, acquire it. Apart from other considerations, this seems far more probable than that trout which had acquired the habit of visiting the abundant food supply in the sea should ever relinquish it. 148. CHAR from afar assimilate in appearance and average size to the variety native to the lake in which the strangers have been placed, I cannot but think that char would show similar susceptibility to environment. Nor do I see any reason to reject the conclusion come to by Agassiz when, in 1834, he pronounced all British forms of char to t>e mere variants of the Ombre chevalier of the Lake of Geneva (Salmo umbla, Linn.). "Naturalists,** he said, "have especially attached themselves to the form of the head and the arrangement of the colours; but these two particulars are much too variable to supply precise characters; as to the variations in colour we may say they are infinite."* Yarrell adopted this view in his second and third editions; it has been confirmed by Dr Francis Dayf and, I think, by all subsequent writers who are careful to check museum research by observation of living creatures in their native haunts. Such observation leads to the conclusion that, while British char as a species are as subject to variation as common trout, there is less variation among the char inhabiting any one lake than there is among the trout in the same lake, because char, feeding and living in deep water, come less under the in- fluence of light and variation of temperature than trout, which live and feed chiefly in comparatively shallow water. But between char of different lakes there is generally a well-marked distinction. " The char of Hawes Water, which is known to feed a good deal on insects, is a small and slender fish in comparison with the char of Windermere, which feeds more at the bottom and has a less precarious supply, especially of Sguillce, which abound in that lake. The one takes the artificial fly freely; the other — that of Windermere — ^is rarely so tempted and seldom caught, except by trolling with the minnow. In short, so various are they that in no two lakes do they perfectly agree, either in their average size, form, colouring, or even in their habits. "J In general appearance char closely resemble trout; but they are distin- guished by their peculiar autumnal colouration. In some varieties this ap- pears in summer as a rosy flush, deepening on the approach of the spawning season (which corresponds with that of trout) to a vermilion or orange -red hue, differing in depth and brilliancy according to sex and variety. The distribution of char has always had a peculiar fascination for me. It takes one back to an era when the surface of our land, deeply ploughed and severely planed by the moving ice-mass, at length lay bare to sun and rain, and was becoming clothed with vegetation. "British Association Report, 1834, p. 619. ^British and Irish Salmonid